"Better one sparrow in thy hand than a thousand on the wing"
- Proverbs of Ahikar the Wise, 6th Century Assyria, #51
Image Source: Noodle snacks, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Eion, a Watery Place
Thraco-Macedonian material of the Strymon watershed have a variety of waterfowl, sometimes ducks, sometimes geese, sometimes herons or cranes and these appear to emanate from one and the same mint as that which produced epigraphic (lettered) coins of Eion.
Eion in Macedonia, on a map of "The Athenian Empire at its height (about 450 BC)" from the collection of historical maps available online at the University of Texas at Austin.
“The ruins that we now see at the mouth of the Strymon are Byzantine, with a milestone of Caracallus in the Agora. Northwest of the city is a marshy lake which may or may not have been there in antiquity. To the north the land rises as one approaches the main road, to the southwest is a tongue of firm land descending to the ruins of a wooden bridge. On each side of the tongue the land is flat and sometimes flooded. Timbers, perhaps from ships, have been found in a well on the edge of the tongue, which may be the ἁκρα defended by Thucydides against Brasidas in 424/23. Tombs have been reported on the other side of the river, and there is a column-fragment of grey stone in some other Byzantine ruins opposite Eion. East of the city is more flat land and then a little lake into which flows the lakkos of Elias the prophet. There tombs can be seen, and columns, and fragments of a building, and there is a report of a porch.”
-Hereward, D. (1963). Inscriptions from Thrace. American Journal of Archaeology, 67(1), 71-75.A few unusual coins have also turned up with birds that are not waterfowl, and yet appear to be similar in fabric and style to the coins of Eion.
e.g.
Nomos coin with Eagle - 4.80g is quite heavy for Eion
Oblos 15, lot 335 with a partridge (often mis-identified as a goose)
Although these are not waterfowl these birds would have been know in Eion and perhaps not surprising that they would also show up on coins? Could Eion have minted for neighbors? These coins do not get associated with lizard and are more consistent with the early anepigraphic coinage rather than the later coinage.
Weight Standards
There are two classes of coins from this region
early material - produced sporadically from an early point in time (c. 525?) and on the Aigenetan weight standard of Eion's metropolis of Andros
later material - epigraphic coins (letters and symbols on them) (c. 477?) that were produced on a different (lower) standard either Attic-Euboic or the Persian siglos
My latest coin appears to be a more rare early variety by weight, 1.11g, and with a ring to the left of the goose. I'm not usually a fan of tiny coins, but the goose on this one and the sturdy nugget of a flan drew me in for a bid. I find the fine, even, crystallization pattern attractive.
Macedon, Eion, c. 480-470 BC, AR Triobol, 1.11g, 9.4mm
Obv: Goose standing right, head left; small ring to upper left
Rev: Incuse square
Ref: AMNG III/2, –; SNG ANS 271 corr. (ring not noted); three examples with 2 rings in ACSearch - a second ring could be off flan to left e.g. ACSearch.
At some point close to Eion's destruction by Kimon and the Athenians in 477/6 it had switched to producing a huge volume of coins on the lower standard and all with the same style and type, merely differing as to the addition of a letter or a symbol (such as an ivy leaf).
Macedon, Eion, AR Trihemiobol (1.01g, 11mm), circa 460-400 BC.
Obv: Goose standing to right, head to left; lizard to left above (off flan), Θ in lower left field
Rev: Quadripartite incuse square
Ref: Naumann 38, 126; Künker 71, 164; HGC 3.1, 521.
Eion captured from the Persians by Cimon, Athenian general, for the Delian League not long before this coin was minted. Eion later would be strategically important in the Pellopenisian war between Sparta and Athens.
Eion or some other Mint?
Gaebler hesitated to name Eion as the mint ("The coins thought to have been minted in Eion")– and this has been revisited periodically since then. There is a weight of evidence consistent with Eion and its history:
Eion translates from Greek to a watery place (shoreline, bank, coast…)
The site of Pr. Elias identified with Eion is consistent with the name, positioned where the fresh water of the Strymon met with the salty water of the Aegean which would have been conducive to watercraft and trade
Of Thraco-Macedonian coinages that cannot be definitely assigned to another major polis or a tribal group, this material is also the most abundant and was produced over a very long period of time
Eion minted electrum and silver in a variety of denominations across several distinct styles, all of which points to production of a civic mint of long duration and episodic productivity
Letters on Later Coins of Eion: The letters on the later coin do not constitute an ethnic and consistent with other coins of this time the simplest explanation is that they are magistrates’ names, source of silver, destination of coins once produced, or other information of this type.
References
Die Antiken Münzen Nord-Griechenlands , Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, editeed by Friedrich Imhoof-Blumer and Theodor Wiegand. Makedonia and Paionia, edited by Hugo Gaebler.
BMC Greek (Macedonia) / Catalogue of Greek coins: Macedonia, etc.; Barclay Head, Reginald S. Poole.
Katerini Liampi Argilos. A Historical and Numismatic Study (Athens: 2005)
Traité Des Monnaies Grecques Et Romaines I (Troisième partie) , Ernest Babelon , 1907.
Personal correspondence with Prof. W. Bubelis, Curator of the John Max Wulfing Collection of Ancient Coins and Related Objects
Additional sources not consulted
Tzamalis, a multi-part series on “Uncertain Thraco-Macedonian Coins” in Nomismatika Khronika, 16-18 (1997-1999). - A. J. Tzamalis, first brought much of the Thraco-Macedonian material to light that had not already been published
SNG volumes: ANS vol. for Macedon; Fitzwilliam; Delepierre; Copenhagen
Catalog of the McClean Collection
"Perix Pangaion Epeiros" book by Asterios Tsintsifios nice photos but otherwise unreliable
These notes were first created 14-Nov-2020 and update with 2 additional coins and information from additional sources on 9-Jun-2024.
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