Silver Stater Of Rhodes, 4 Century BCE - 3rd Century BCE
Silver
C.7654
Obverse: Portrait of Helio Reverse: A Ros The island nation of Rhodes was an immensely successful commercial power o the Aegean. They strategically sided with Athens but, when in jeopardy,...
Obverse: Portrait of Helio
Reverse: A Ros
The island nation of Rhodes was an immensely successful commercial power o the Aegean. They strategically sided with Athens but, when in jeopardy,
negotiated favorable surrenders to Sparta, Alexander the Great, and Demetrio Poliorketes, allowing them to sustain at least some degree of independence base on neutrality. Rhodes was named for the rose, depicted on the reverse of thi coin. A portrait of Helios, the sun god, wearing a crown of rays graces th obverse. This image was based upon the head of the great statue of Helios,
better known as the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancien World. The Colossus memorialized the war with Demetrios Poliorketes. H unsuccessfully attacked the city for over a year, around 305-304 B.C.
Eventually, a settlement was negotiated and Poliorketes abandoned his sieg towers constructed from valuable timbers that the Rhodeans in turn sold off fo shipbuilding. The proceeds from this sale were invested in the huge (105 ft.)
bronze statue of Helios standing at the entrance of the harbor. While the famou statue served as a reminder of the city's fortitude during the siege and becam a tourist attraction, it only stood until 227 B.C. when it was toppled by a earthquake.
How many hands have touched a coin in your pocket or your purse? What era and lands have the coin traversed on its journey into our possession? As w reach into our pockets to pull out some change, we rarely hesitate to think o who touched the coin before us, or where the coin will venture to after us. Mor than money, coins are a symbol of the state that struck them, of a specific tim and place, whether currency in the age we live or an artifact of a lon forgotten empire. This ancient coin is more than an artifact; it is a memoria to the glories of Rhodes passed from the hands of civilization to civilization,
from generation to generation.
Reverse: A Ros
The island nation of Rhodes was an immensely successful commercial power o the Aegean. They strategically sided with Athens but, when in jeopardy,
negotiated favorable surrenders to Sparta, Alexander the Great, and Demetrio Poliorketes, allowing them to sustain at least some degree of independence base on neutrality. Rhodes was named for the rose, depicted on the reverse of thi coin. A portrait of Helios, the sun god, wearing a crown of rays graces th obverse. This image was based upon the head of the great statue of Helios,
better known as the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancien World. The Colossus memorialized the war with Demetrios Poliorketes. H unsuccessfully attacked the city for over a year, around 305-304 B.C.
Eventually, a settlement was negotiated and Poliorketes abandoned his sieg towers constructed from valuable timbers that the Rhodeans in turn sold off fo shipbuilding. The proceeds from this sale were invested in the huge (105 ft.)
bronze statue of Helios standing at the entrance of the harbor. While the famou statue served as a reminder of the city's fortitude during the siege and becam a tourist attraction, it only stood until 227 B.C. when it was toppled by a earthquake.
How many hands have touched a coin in your pocket or your purse? What era and lands have the coin traversed on its journey into our possession? As w reach into our pockets to pull out some change, we rarely hesitate to think o who touched the coin before us, or where the coin will venture to after us. Mor than money, coins are a symbol of the state that struck them, of a specific tim and place, whether currency in the age we live or an artifact of a lon forgotten empire. This ancient coin is more than an artifact; it is a memoria to the glories of Rhodes passed from the hands of civilization to civilization,
from generation to generation.