Electrum coin from Ephesus, 625–600 BC. Obverse: Stag grazing right, ΦΑΝΕΩΣ (retrograde). Reverse: Two incuse punches, each with raised intersecting lines.

The Phanes coins, so called for the name inscribed on them, are early electrum coins from Caria in Asia Minor and are the most ancient inscribed coin series at present known.

Coins

The Phanes coins are a series of electrum coins issued in seven denominations: stater, 1/3, 1/6, 1/12, 1/24, 1/48, and 1/96 stater. The staters weigh 14.1 grams. All of the coins have the image of a stag or part of a stag on them.[1] The coins were likely struck at Ephesus.[2]

The stater and 1/3 stater coins from this series both bear Greek inscriptions.[1] The inscriptions are written right-to-left, and the letters are the mirror image of standard Greek letters.[3] The longer inscription, on the stater, survives in three versions, which read: ΦΑΕΝΟΣ ΕΜΙ ΣHΜΑ ("Phaenos emi sema"), ΦΑΝΟΣ ΕΜΙ ΣHΜΑ ("Phanos emi sema"), and ΦΑΝΕΟΣ ΕΙΜΙ ("Phaneos eimi").[1] This may be translated as "I am the badge/mark/symbol of Phanes" or "I am the sign of the bright one".[4][lower-alpha 1] The shorter legend, on the 1/3 stater coins, is ΦΑΝΕΟΣ ("Phaneos", meaning "of Phanes").[1]

The coins of Phanes are amongst the earliest of Greek coins. One, a hemihekte (a twelfth stater) of the issue, was found in a jar in the foundations of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus dated to the late seventh century BC, making that the earliest known hoard of coins.[6] Only six specimens of the stater are known.[7]

Identity of Phanes

Electrum coin from Ephesus, 625–600 BC. Stag grazing right, legend unclear, possibly ΦΑΕΝΟΣ ΕΜΙ ΣHΜΑ (“I am the badge/sign/mark of Phanes/the bright one”).

Phanes cannot be identified with certainty. He might have been the successful mercenary Phanes of Halicarnassus, described by Herodotus as serving first the Egyptian pharaoh Amasis II and then the Persian king Cambyses II in his invasion of Egypt.[8] The coins might be associated with the primeval god Phanes, whose name means "light" or "shine", or that might have been an epithet of the local goddess identified with Artemis. Barclay V. Head found those suggestions unlikely and thought it more probably "the name of some prominent citizen of Ephesus".[9]

Notes

  1. ↑ "a vocabulary very close to the inscriptions on seals. A sixth century scarab had already an Archaic Greek inscription reading : "I am the sema of Thersis""[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Meadows, Andrew (2021). "Local Scripts on Archaic Coins: Distribution and Function". In Parker, Robert; Steele, Philippa M. (eds.). The Early Greek Alphabet: Origin, Diffusion, Uses. Oxford University Press. p. 191.
  2. ↑ Jeffrey, L. H. (1961). The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece (Revised ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 378.
  3. ↑ "Electrum stater inscribed with the name of Phanes". British Museum. 2011-09-29. Archived from the original on 2021-10-26. Retrieved 2021-10-26.
  4. ↑ Newton, Charles (1870). The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society. Vol. 10. The Royal Numismatic Society. p. 238.
  5. ↑ Kaplan, Deniz (2000). "Common traits on seals and coins of the Achaemenid period in an Anatolian context". In Casabonne, Olivier (ed.). Mécanismes et innovations monétaires dans l’Anatolie achéménide. Numismatique et Histoire. Actes de la Table Ronde d’Istanbul, 22-23 mai 1997. Istanbul. Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes. p. 215. Archived from the original on 26 October 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  6. ↑ Kurke, Leslie (1999). Coins, Bodies, Games, and Gold: The Politics of Meaning in Archaic Greece. Princeton University Press. pp. 6–7. ISBN 0691007365. Archived from the original on 2023-04-13. Retrieved 2021-10-25.
  7. ↑ "White Gold: Revealing the World's Earliest Coins at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem". museum.imj.org.il. Archived from the original on 2021-02-27. Retrieved 2021-10-25.
  8. ↑ Gardner, Percy (1878). The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society. Vol. 18. London Royal Numismatic Society. p. 262. Retrieved 2012-05-21.
  9. ↑ Head, Barclay V. (1911). Historia Numorum, A Manual of Greek Numismatics, New and Enlarged Edition. London: Clarendon Press. Archived from the original on 23 January 2022. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
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