Lycia, Oinoanda.Didrachm of 188 BCE. Laureate head of Zeus looking to the right; A and scepter behind. On the reverse, Eagle standing right on a winged thunderbolt. The coin is well -centered and sharply struck from the first die pairing of the series. It is extremely rare and has the best quality among the four coins known from these dies.
Oinoanda is an ancient Greek city located in the upper valley of the Xanthus River. It was built on the top of a high mountain in the ancient province of Lycia, which is now modern southwest Turkey. We don't know much about the early history of the settlement, in spite of several archaeological expeditions which have taken place in the region.
Oinoanda was an important city in antiquity; however, it issued its
own silver coins during only one time in its history.Until the early 2000s, the coinage of Oinoanda was known from a single specimen acquired by the British Museum in 1897. The discovery of a small group has allowed the types to be studied in much more detail and has added at least some information about a period we know very little.
Three distinct issues have been identified, marked by a sequence of letters and symbols. They are dated to the first three years of Attalid rule of the region, which followed the Peace of Apameia in 188 BCE, after the Roman defeat of Antiochos the 3rd in 190 BCE. The terms of the peace dictated that Pergamon and Rhodes took control of much of the Seleucid territories in Anatolia.
Because of this, Oinoanda was able to establish enough autonomy to begin minting its own coinage. Due to the wide variety in coin weight, it is apparent that the mint did not have experience in quality control, but each of the coins was intended to be an Attic didrachm, weighing about 8.65 grams.
Contrary to the prevalent drachm and tetradrachms in the region, didrachms were an unusual denomination.A theory suggests that this weight was chosen for streamlined exchange between the Attic standard and the new cistophoroi of the Attalids, with three Oinoandan didrachms equaling two cistophoric tetradrachms.
With both cistophoric and Attic coinages used in Oinoanda, the Oinoanda didrachm would facilitate official payments to the Attalid authorities, as well as trade with local and nearby territories,which were still on the Attic standard.
The real purpose of this rare and isolated coinage is still unclear, but it may have been minted to pay for the Hellenistic city walls built during the period after the formal Attalid takeover. However, the four known obverse dies wouldn't have produced enough coins to pay for such a large undertaking. This indicates that unless we discover coins from more dies in the future, the difference may have been funded by the cistophoroi or Side tetradrachms, which circulated in the region.
Zeus was the principal God of Oinoanda, and He is depicted on the obverse of this coin with a lotus-tipped scepter over His shoulder. His eagle is shown on the reverse, standing to the right on a winged thunderbolt. The design seems to have been partly influenced by the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, sharing similar features;however, its execution clearly deviates from the Egyptian coins.
This coin is the finest of the four coins known from the first die pair in the series;thus, marking it as one of the first coins struck by the city of Oinoanda and placing it in the beginning of an enigmatic coinage that still has a lot of knowledge to give us.
Source: https://coinweek.com/
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