Comparison of denominations

Coin catalogue sections: Anemourion, Aphrodisias, Holmoi, Kelenderis, Nagidos, Pseudo-Kelenderis Mints
Coin corpus datasets: Anemourion, Aphrodisias, Staters, Holmoi, Group 1, Holmoi, Group 2, Kelenderis, Staters – Group 1, Kelenderis, Staters – Group 2, Kelenderis, Staters – Group 3, Nagidos, Staters – Group 1, Nagidos, Staters – Group 2, Nagidos, Staters – Group 3, Pseudo-Kelenderis Mints

In Section Staters of Cilicia Trachea, the staters of the mints of Anemourion, Aphrodisias, Holmoi, Kelenderis, Nagidos and Pseudo-Kelenderis are distributed into two phases representing the basic development of the weight standard. Refer to the column ‘Staters’ in Table 1. Based on the Coin Catalogue and the weight analyses of these mints, lower denominations can also be distributed into these two phases, as shown in the columns ‘Third staters’, ‘Obols’ and ‘Hemiobols’ in Table 1.

The grey shaded cells in Table 1 indicate combinations of mints and denominations for which no coins are known. For the distribution of the Kelenderis and Nagidos obols into subgroups 5A, 5B and 5C, see the respective weight analyses Kelenderis, Obols and Nagidos, Silver fractions. Note that the tetartemorion is represented in the coin corpus by a single specimen that comes from the Nagidos mint, and therefore this denomination is not included in Table 1 and the following analysis. Lower silver denominations than the tetartemorion are not known from these mints.

Staters Third staters Obols Hemiobols
Phase 1 Anemourion
Aphrodisias
Holmoi Group 1 Type 1.3 Types 1.4, 2.2–3 Type 2.4
Kelenderis Groups 1–3B all types Groups 5A–B all types
Nagidos Groups A–B all types Groups 5A–B all types
Pseudo-Kelenderis Group 1
Phase 2 Anemourion Type 1
Aphrodisias Type 1 Type 2.2
Holmoi Group 2
Kelenderis Group 3C Group 5C
Nagidos Group C Group 5C
Pseudo-Kelenderis Group 2

Table 1: Distribution of coins into Phases 1 and 2

The numbers of analysed coins (i.e. coins in the Coin Corpus that are included in the weight analyses of individual mints) for each combination of mints and denominations, as well as the total number of coins for each denomination in each phase of the development of the weight standard, are shown in Table 2.

Staters Third staters Obols Hemiobols
Phase 1 Anemourion
Aphrodisias
Holmoi 9 1 55 3
Kelenderis 440 34 186 47
Nagidos 364 12 201 2
Pseudo-Kelenderis 16
Total 829 47 442 52
Phase 2 Anemourion 2
Aphrodisias 5 21
Holmoi 6
Kelenderis 36 13
Nagidos 209 18
Pseudo-Kelenderis 1
Total 259 52

Table 2: Numbers of coins

Table 3 shows the basic descriptive statistics of the denominations in both phases of the development of the weight standard (Std. Dev. denotes the standard deviation, IQR the interquartile range and CV the coefficient of variation). Not surprisingly, the coefficient of variation (CV) is higher the lower the denomination.

Staters Third staters Obols Hemiobols
Phase 1 Count 829 47 442 52
Mean 10.64 3.43 0.73 0.36
Median 10.68 3.47 0.72 0.36
Std. Dev. 0.20 0.16 0.09 0.06
IQR 0.19 0.14 0.11 0.10
CV 0.02 0.05 0.12 0.16
Phase 2 Count 259 52
Mean 9.94 0.58
Median 9.99 0.57
Std. Dev. 0.27 0.09
IQR 0.28 0.11
CV 0.03 0.15

Table 3: Descriptive statistics of denominations

An analysis of the relationship between the weights of staters and lower denominations is presented in Table 4. The column ‘Denomination ratio’ indicates the theoretical weight ratio of staters to individual denominations according to the Persian weight standard, i.e. 1 stater = 3 third staters (tetrobols) = 12 obols = 24 hemiobols. The ‘Ratio’ columns show the ratio of the average weight of the staters to the average weight of the given lower nominal. The ‘Seigniorage’ columns show by how many percent this weight ratio is higher than its theoretical value given in the „Denomination ratio“ column (the values are rounded to one decimal place).

For example, the average weight of staters in Phase 1 is 10.6367 g and the average weight of obols in Phase 1 is 0.7272 g (the values in Table 3 are rounded to two decimal places, i.e. to 10.64 and 0.73), so their ratio is 10.6367/0.7272 = 14.6269, i.e. 14.63 after rounding. Thus, approximately 14.63 obols were struck from the amount of metal corresponding to one stater instead of the theoretical number of 12 obols, i.e. 2.63 obols more, which corresponds to the seigniorage (the mint’s gross profit) of 2.63/12 = 21.9%.

Table 4 shows that the lower the denomination, the higher the seigniorage was, and also that this mint margin increased in Phase 2. However, these are preliminary very rough estimates, and to refine them it is necessary to take into account the different relative weight loss of higher and lower denominations due to wear and corrosion. A more thorough analysis will be published later.

Denomination
ratio
Phase 1 Phase 2
Ratio Seigniorage Ratio Seigniorage
Staters / Third staters 3 3.10 3.2%
Staters / Obols 12 14.63 21.9% 17.14 42.8%
Staters / Hemiobols 24 29.51 23.0%

Table 4: Weight ratios and seigniorage

1 August 2023 – 30 October 2024