OBOL: COIN OF ANCIENT GREECE
Obol, 324-323 BC: City of Laranda (Lycaonia, Ancient Greece)
Lycaonia (Greek "Λυκαονία") — large region in the interior of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), north of the Taurus Mountains. Ptolemy includes Lycaonia as a part of the province of Cappadocia. There is a theory that the name "Lycaonia" is a Greek-adapted version (influenced by the Greek masculine name Lycaon) of an original Lukkawanna, which would mean "the land of the Lukka people" in an old Anatolian language related to Hittite. The region was once closely connected to Ancient Greece, both culturally and commercially. This is reflected in the denominations/names of local coins.
Laranda — an ancient city of Lycaonia, today Karaman in south-central Turkey.
Baaltars with grain ear and grape bunch in right hand, scepter in left.
Baaltars — the tutelary deity of the city of Tarsus in the Persian Empire. His depiction appears on coins of the Persian governors (satraps) of Cilicia before the conquests of Alexander the Great, in the 5th and 4th century BCE. The equivalent of Baaltars for the Greeks was Zeus.
Wolf and crescent (inverted).
- Silver: 11 mm - 0.64 g
- Reference price: 72$
COIN OBOL — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- ANCIENT GREECE (6th-1th centuries BC) — ancient Greek city-states in Europe, Asia and Africa...: obol = 16 lepton = 8 chalkon = 1/6 drachm
- UNITED STATES OF THE IONIAN ISLANDS, a Greek state and amical protectorate of the United Kingdom (1819-1862): obol = 4 lepton
- ...
OBOL as coin name.
Obol — one of the oldest coin denominations in the history of mankind with over 2000 years of history. A vivid example of classical Ancient Greek numismatics.
Initially, the obol was considered exclusively as a measure of weight (0.65 g). Then this term began to be used to refer to iron rods that performed the function of money. Six such obols, put together, made up a drachm. The use of massive iron rods for calculations significantly complicated bribery and theft.
The first known obols of traditional round shape (actually, coins) date back to the times of Ancient Greece, namely the 6th century BC. These were small (0.72 g) silver coins, which amounted to ⅙ drachm and, in turn, were equal to 8 chalkon or 16 lepton.
There are also multiple denominations: hemiobol, diobol, triobol, tetrobol, pentobol...
Over time, silver was replaced by copper and bronze.
Interestingly, the ancient Greeks massively used obols in ritual events: they were placed under the tongue of the deceased so that they could use the coin in the afterlife.
The Greeks minted coins not only in Athens or surrounding cities, but also in colonies — Olbia and Pantikapaion (Northern Black Sea Region), Istria and Metapontum (region of the Apennine Peninsula), Amisos (Turkey), Alexandria (Egypt)...
Some sources claim that somewhat later — in the 9th-10th centuries — obol appeared in Byzantium. They were supposedly equal to half a follis. As a unit of account, the obol was probably used by the Byzantines. However, it was not possible to find data on Byzantine coins of this type.
Then, almost simultaneously, obols began to be used in the lands of a number of medieval European states with local related names (obole, obolo, obulus...): modern France, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, England, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary... As a rule, the coin was half the local denar.
Along with the Teschen obulus, among Ukrainian numismatists, Greek obol are also most often found, namely the coins of Olbia and Pantikapaion.
The last obols to be minted in history were the obols of the Ionian Republic, a British protectorate that existed within the Ionian Islands (modern Greece) from 1815 to 1864. This coin was the equivalent of British half penny coins.
The name of the obol coin comes from the ancient Greek term "oβολoς" / "oβελoς", which translates as "rod", "twig".