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Coin of the Month

November 2024: A new coin variety of Sestos

The Coin of this Month is presented by Vladimir Stolba


A significant number of new coin varieties appearing regularly in trade prevents us from dwelling in detail on each of them. However, we aim to highlight some of them from time to time in our Coin of the Month section. This time, we present to our readers a new variety of bronze coins from Sestos from the Hellenistic era.

Except for the Alexander-type staters, and tetradrachms and drachms with the names of Alexander and Lysimachos—whose attribution to the Sestos mint should be treated with caution—the city's coinage is represented exclusively by bronze coins. The city's strategic significance was determined by its location at the crossing point of the Hellespont, directly opposite its more powerful neighbor, Abydos. This strategic importance is reflected to some extent in the volume of local coinage, with more than 120 types represented in the Corpus Nummorum database.

The coin we have chosen as our Coin of the Month comes from the April 2024 Savoca auction. The obverse features a female head facing left, while the reverse displays a typical image of a seated Demeter with ears of corn. The absence of distinguishing attributes makes the interpretation of the obverse image challenging. Demeter, judging by the coins, was among the most popular deities of the city, along with Hermes. Behind the goddess, the remains of the ethnic name [Σ]ΗΣ[ΤΙ] are discernible.

This new variant differs from other issues by additional symbols in the left coin field: a standing figure of Athena wearing a Corinthian helmet and holding a spear, as well as a monogram in the form of a three-barred sigma. On previously known issues, control marks have included a herm, a club, an Isis headdress, and various monograms. In his old but still authoritative study of Sestos coinage, von Fritze assigns these issues to the second period of his classification, which he believed was separated from the first by a significant time interval.

The continuous emergence of new coin varieties in trade allows us to progressively fill gaps in our understanding of the city's coinage.



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