Obverse: Forepart of a Pegasus facing
left,
surrounded by a grapevine.
Reverse: Quadripartite incuse square.
Mysia was an ancient district in
northwest
Anatolia (modern Turkey) adjoining the
Sea of
Marmara on the north and the Aegean
Sea on the
west. Mysia designated a geographic
rather than
a political territory and encompassed
Aeolis,
Troas, and the region surrounding the
great
city- state Pergamum. Lampsakos,
originally
called Pityussa, was a Mysian city
located on the
southern shore of the Hellespont
opposite
Kallipolis. It had a good harbor, and
was said to
have been founded by the Milesians or
the
Phokaians. During the 6th and 5th c.
B.C. it
belonged to Lydia, and then to the
Persians; it
joined the Athenian League, paying 12
talents,
and was an object of contention among
the
Athenians, Spartans and Persians from
411 B.C.
until the Hellenistic period.
Ultimately, it allied
with Rome in 190 B.C. and prospered
thereafter.
How many hands have touched a coin in
your
pocket or purse? What eras and lands
have the
coin traversed on its journey into our
possession? As we reach into our
pockets to pull
out some change, we rarely hesitate to
think of
who might have touched the coin before
us, or
where the coin will venture to after
it leaves our
hands. More than money, coins are a
symbol of
the state that struck them, of a
specific time and
location, whether contemporary
currencies or
artifacts of a long forgotten empire.
This
stunning hand-struck coin reveals an
expertise
of craftsmanship and intricate
sculptural detail
that is often lacking in contemporary
machine-
made currencies. This magnificent coin
is a
memorial to the ancient glories of
Lampsakos
and greater Mysia passed down from the
hands
of civilization to civilization, from
generation to
generation.
