A silver diobol of Miletus from the turn of the 6th and 5th centuries BC represents the well-developed coinage of one of the most important cities of Ionia during the late Archaic and early Classical periods.
Miletus, renowned for its numerous colonies along the Black Sea and throughout the Mediterranean basin, is widely attested in ancient sources, including Herodotus, as a major commercial power.
The obverse bears a lion’s head facing left, a motif that ranks among the oldest and most consistently employed iconographic types of Miletus. The lion appears on numerous Archaic issues of the city, both on larger denominations and on small silver fractions.
Greece
Ionia, Milet, Diobol 525-475 BC
Obverse: head of lion left
Reverse: ornament in the form of a four-leaf flower inside an incusum square
Diameter 9 mm, weight 1.13 g
