A coin from Melos!

[kirispupis]

I added an exclamation here because the coinage of nearly any island of the Cyclades is challenging, but Melos in particular was a tough one. The island became world famous when a farmer was digging on the acropolis and came across an interesting statue. It was not long after purchased by Louis XVII and placed in the Louvre.

Today, she's a world-famous celebrity photographed by millions of tourists. I was one of them.

Just slightly less known than the Venus de Milo is my coin, which is also from Melos.

Cyclades, Melos
3rd-1st century BCE
Æ 17mm, 4.04 g, 6h
Pomegranate /
Kantharos; grape bunches flanking; all within incuse square.
SNG Copenhagen 683; HGC 6, 835

 

Debated is the obverse. While most attribute it to a pomegranate and Svoronos stated it was a quince, I have to ask why it's not an apple. After all, the island is called Μήλος, while the Greek word for 'apple' is 'μήλο'. It does look a bit odd for an apple, but it's equally odd as a pomegranate. I have a quince tree in my backyard and it doesn't really resemble that either, but then my tree produces very weird quinces. I suppose upon further research that it's not an apple, but it certainly seems odd to call your island 'apple' and then put a pomegranate or quince on your coins. 

Milos was the site of a horrible action by Athens in 417-416 BCE. Since the island had sided with Sparta, Athens attempted to coerce the island into joining them. When that failed, they besieged the island, conquered it, then killed every man and sold the women and children into slavery. The butchery was despised in Athens itself and Euripides' play The Trojan Women was influenced by it (though not based on the events).

Athens then resettled Melos, but in 405 BCE the Spartan general Lysander resettled the island from the remains of the original inhabitants.

I was not able to find a decent source online about the history of Melos' coinage. There was a major hoard found in 1907, consisting of 79 coins minted in the 5th century BCE. It consisted of an amazing 31 different types and is believed to have been buried by someone in Melos shortly before Athens' destruction of its cities. Those issues were silver and mine came much later. That being said, my coin was likely extant when the Venus de Milo was being carved, so it's possible that the sculptor used my coin to buy a beer.

From what I can tell, this is the only example of the type sold at auction, though it's published so there must be others in museums. The types of Melos are varied and I wonder if they changed designs often.

Feel free to show your coins from the Cyclades or anything related!

 

[Deinomenid]

Very jealous!

14 hours ago, kirispupis said:

a decent source online

Head's Historia Nummorum has a couple of decent pages  on it in case that helps.  He  has a very strong view of the nature of the object on the obverse - deciding firmly that  it a ....."fruit"!

Btw, I used to  HATE  how that Melian Dialogue was smugly presented as an example of realpolitik, rather than  bullying  genocide. As Mitch Hedberg  said,  used to, and still do.

 

 

 

[Broucheion]

21 hours ago, kirispupis said:

There was a major hoard found in 1907, consisting of 79 coins minted in the 5th century BCE.

Hi @kirispupis,

There is a more up to date reading on the 1907 Melos hoard at JSTOR  https://www.jstor.org/stable/42662578 ("THE MELOS HOARD OF 1907 RE-EXAMINED" by Colin M. Kraay in The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society, Seventh Series, Vol. 4 (1964), pp. 1-20 (23 pages).

- Broucheion

Edited November 14, 2023 by Broucheion

[Broucheion]

Hi All,

I forgot to mention that there is a rare Ptolemaic AE attributed by Lorber to Melos. It is BMC Aegean Islands, p. 105, 22-25, pl. xxiv; 4 (See CPE-B411).

- Broucheion

 

Edited November 14, 2023 by Broucheion

[kirispupis]

18 minutes ago, Broucheion said:

There is a more up to date reading on the 1907 Melos hoard at JSTOR  https://www.jstor.org/stable/42662578 ("THE MELOS HOARD OF 1907 RE-EXAMINED" by Colin M. Kraay in The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society, Seventh Series, Vol. 4 (1964), pp. 1-20 (23 pages).

Thanks! Of particular interest is his research on the fruit:

 The fruit is a μήλον (a word which embraces a number of hard tree-fruits), and its
use on the coinage is a pun on the island's name. It has usually been described as a
pomegranate, less often as a quince, and exceptionally ( SNG iii, 2612-15) as an apple.
In view of this uncertainty I have consulted the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and I
am most grateful to Mr. R. D. Meikle for the following report: *1 think one must
assume that the fruit shown on the Melos coin is an Apple ( Malus sylvestris Mill.),
but so stylised that it is really impossible to identify it with complete certainty. The
longitudinal furrows are very extraordinary, though of course it is possible that the
cultivated apples of the period were similarly (though I am sure less deeply) furrowed.
The fruit is certainly not a Pomegranate. It could conceivably be a Quince ( Cydonia
oblonga Mill.), but I think this is less likely'.

So, I'm not the only one who thinks it's an apple. 🙂

[khaghogh]

There are about 190 hits for Melos using the Gallica search of the Paris Cabinet.

https://gallica.bnf.fr/services/engine/search/sru?operation=searchRetrieve&version=1.2&startRecord=0&maximumRecords=50&page=1&query=(gallica all "Melos")&filter=dc.type all "objet"

 

[AncientOne]

Congrats on your new coin! 

I have been lucky with my acquisitions from the Cyclades.  One is a provincial from Melos and three are Greek

.

Achaea. Cyclades, Melos. Demos / Palladium AE24

Obv: DHMOC / Bearded bust of Demos r.
Rev: ΜΗΛΙΩΝ / Statue of Pallas Athena(Palladium) standing facing head r., holding spear aloft in right hand, preparing to strike, circular shield on left arm.
24mm., 12.2g.
Time of Nerva.
RPC Volume: III №: 404A

https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/3/404A

 

Andros

 

Tenos

 

Keos, Karthaia

 

[Deinomenid]

@kirispupis I have  no wish to take sides  in the Great Melian Fruit Debate,  but  I was browsing the excellent German state site and they had one particularly  outstanding Melos coin. None of my apple  trees grows fruit like this. They call it a granatapfel, pomegranate. So many fruits  today look very different to even a few  hundred years ago, but for what it is worth that inverted crown shape at the bottom of the coin  is exactly like modern pomegranates though.

https://ikmk.smb.museum/object?lang=en&id=18200147

 

[kirispupis]

2 hours ago, Deinomenid said:

@kirispupis I have  no wish to take sides  in the Great Melian Fruit Debate,  but  I was browsing the excellent German state site and they had one particularly  outstanding Melos coin. None of my apple  trees grows fruit like this. They call it a granatapfel, pomegranate. So many fruits  today look very different to even a few  hundred years ago, but for what it is worth that inverted crown shape at the bottom of the coin  is exactly like modern pomegranates though.

https://ikmk.smb.museum/object?lang=en&id=18200147

I'm sure this mystery will rank up there with "who really killed JFK?" and "where is Alexander the Great's tomb (now)?"

However, since the Royal Botanical Gardens agrees with my viewpoint, I'm apt to go with them. 🙂 

I do wonder if 2000 years ago someone will unearth an Apple Computer and there will be a debate on which fruit is depicted...

[John Conduitt]

I heard it goes well with silphium.

[panzerman]

Nice topic/ however I have a big FAT 0 from Melos.