Ancients: ACHAEMENID PERSIA. Time of Artaxerxes III-Darius III (ca. 350-333 BC). AR tetradrachm (23mm, 15.12 gm, 12h). NGC Choice VF 5/5...

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Hinterlands Map

ACHAEMENID PERSIA. Time of Artaxerxes III-Darius III (ca. 350-333 BC). AR tetradrachm (23mm, 15.12 gm, 12h). NGC Choice VF 5/5 - 4/5. Uncertain mint in Western Asia Minor, possibly Ephesus, Chian standard. Persian king, wearing cidaris and candys, in kneeling-running stance right, transverse spear in right hand, bow outward in left / Incuse rectangle, containing pattern, possibly depicting relief map of the hinterland of Ephesus. Johnston, Earliest 6. Meadows, Administration 328. Mildenberg, Münzwesen pp. 25-6 and pl. XII, 110. BMC Ionia p. 324, 3 and 6. Jameson 1787. Pozzi 3138. A seldom-seen type, presenting well-defined devices.

From the WTR Collection

This rare and highly unusual coin type, matching an obverse derived from the silver sigloi and gold darics of Achaemenid Persia, with an incuse reverse of a distinctive pattern, was subjected to an insightful analysis by scholar A.E.M. Johnston in 1967. He concluded the reverse design was actually a relief map of the hinterland around Ephesus, where the coin was struck, depicting the mountains and river valleys of western Ionia with remarkable fidelity. He postulated these coins were struck by the Satrap Memnon circa 336-334 BC to pay his mostly mercenary Greek army as war with Macedon loomed. The relief map theory has been dismissed as fanciful by other numismatists, chiefly Leo Mildenberg; however, no other plausible explanation for the highly distinctive incuse pattern, which is repeated across several different dies and even denominations, has yet been presented.

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