Pamphylian Silver Stater of Aspendos, 370 BCE - 330 CE
Silver
C.2220
Obverse: Two Wrestlers Grappling Reverse: A Slinger Facing Right, Legend 'ESTFEDIIUS' to the Lef Aspendos was a Greek colony and strategic port and naval base in Persian territory, on the...
Obverse: Two Wrestlers Grappling
Reverse: A Slinger Facing Right, Legend "ESTFEDIIUS" to the Lef
Aspendos was a Greek colony and strategic port and naval base in Persian territory, on the river Eurymedon in Pamphylia. There were no coins issued in the area until c. 460 B.C., after which Aspendos struck large numbers of coins on the Persian weight standard, widely used in western Asia Minor. Beginning about 400 B.C., Aspendos issued a new series of staters, which were struck to the end of the fourth century. These depict wrestlers on the obverse and a slinger on the reverse. The types are unusual for their detailed depiction of full-length bodies in active athletic poses. It has been suggested that the slinger was chosen for the similarity of the Greek word for sling, sphendone, to the name of the town. In the right field of the reverse is the city's badge, the triskeles, three human legs connected in a wheel-like formation, which had occupied a more prominent position on the obverse of earlier Aspendian coins.
How many hands have touched a coin in your pocket or purse? What eras and lands have the coin traversed on its journey into our possession? As we reach into our pockets to pull out some change, we rarely hesitate to think of who might have touched the coin before us, or where the coin will venture to after it leaves our hands. More than money, coins are a symbol of the state that struck them, of a specific time and location, whether contemporary currencies or artifacts of a long forgotten empire. This magnificent coin is a memorial to the ancient glories of Aspendos passed down from the hands of civilization to civilization, from generation to generation.
Reverse: A Slinger Facing Right, Legend "ESTFEDIIUS" to the Lef
Aspendos was a Greek colony and strategic port and naval base in Persian territory, on the river Eurymedon in Pamphylia. There were no coins issued in the area until c. 460 B.C., after which Aspendos struck large numbers of coins on the Persian weight standard, widely used in western Asia Minor. Beginning about 400 B.C., Aspendos issued a new series of staters, which were struck to the end of the fourth century. These depict wrestlers on the obverse and a slinger on the reverse. The types are unusual for their detailed depiction of full-length bodies in active athletic poses. It has been suggested that the slinger was chosen for the similarity of the Greek word for sling, sphendone, to the name of the town. In the right field of the reverse is the city's badge, the triskeles, three human legs connected in a wheel-like formation, which had occupied a more prominent position on the obverse of earlier Aspendian coins.
How many hands have touched a coin in your pocket or purse? What eras and lands have the coin traversed on its journey into our possession? As we reach into our pockets to pull out some change, we rarely hesitate to think of who might have touched the coin before us, or where the coin will venture to after it leaves our hands. More than money, coins are a symbol of the state that struck them, of a specific time and location, whether contemporary currencies or artifacts of a long forgotten empire. This magnificent coin is a memorial to the ancient glories of Aspendos passed down from the hands of civilization to civilization, from generation to generation.