A guide to the principal gold and silver coins of the ancients ...

• PERIOD I. B.
I. B.
Plates 4-6.
PiATE 4 1. Thrace or ThasOS. EL. Obv. Centaur carrying off a nymph.
liev. Incuse. Phocaic stater. Wt. 252-5 grs.
This remarkable electrum stater of the Pangasan district
of Thrace or of Thasos is of the same weightstandard
as the early electrum of Cyzicus and Zeleia,
1. A. 11, 12.
2. Thrace. Zseelii. M. Obv. lAIEAEnN. Centaur carrying
off a nymph. Hev. Flat incuse square. Wt. 141-3 grs.
3. Thasos. JR. Obv. Satyr kneeling with a nymph in his arms.
Hev. Incuse square. Wt. 150-2 grs.
4. JJete. -5J. Obv. Satyr standing opposite a nymph and holding her
by the wrist. Bev. Incuse. Wt. 152*6 grs.
5. Lete. M. Similar, but of finer work. Wt. 146-6 grs.
The types of the above coins all refer to the worship of
the rude forces of nature symbolised in the orgiastic rites
of the Thracian Bacchus and his following (Centaurs,
Satyrs, Maenads, &c.). Mt. Pangaeum, on the summit of
which was the famous oracle of Bacchus, was the religious
centre of the Thracian mining tribes, whose coinage
spread over the whole district north of Chalcidice, from
the Nestos in the east to the Haliacmon in the west,
before the time of the Persian wars.
6. Neapolis. JR. Obv. Gorgon-head. Hev. Incuse. Wt. 147 grs.
Neapolis, opposite Thasos, was the port of the Pangaean
district. Its coins follow the standard of the neighbouring
mining tribes and of Thasos.
7. Acanthus. .ZR. Obv. Lion devouring bull. Iiev. Incuse square.
Wt. 268 grs.
All the early coins of the cities of Chalcidice follow
the Attic standard. That there were lions in this district
at the time of the Persian wars we learn from Herodotus,
who relates how they came down from the mountains
and seized upon the beasts of burden in the army of
Xerxes.
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