The Holmoi staters of Type 2.1 (Figure 1) are iconographically similar to staters of the city of Side in Pamphylia of the type Athena holding Nike and a shield on the obverse and Apollo holding a laurel sceptre and making a libation on the reverse (Figures 2–3). A similar composition on both the obverse and the reverse is also used on staters depicting a coiled serpent at the feet of Athena (Figure 4).1 These staters are sometimes also attributed to Side, but this attribution is uncertain due to the absence of the pomegranate as the symbol of Side.2 The Sidetic script indicates that they were minted in Pamphylia, and therefore they may be coins of a smaller Pamphylian city dependent on Side,3 but a special issue by Side itself, for example on the occasion of a religious festival, cannot be ruled out.4 For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we will hereafter call these coins Side-style staters.

Figure 1. Holmoi. Stater, 4th century BC. Type 2.1a.

Figure 2. Pamphylia, Side. Stater, 4th century BC. SNG France 2, 652 var. (without the Sidetic letters above the altar and without the bird at the base of the olive branch).

Figure 3. Pamphylia, Side. Stater, 4th century BC. SNG Copenhagen 31, 376.

Figure 4. Pamphylia, Side-style. Stater, 4th century BC. Unpublished in standard references.

Side was founded by colonists from Aiolian Kyme in the 7th or 6th century BC and Athena and Apollo were its main deities, although the preserved remains of temples dedicated to them date back to the Roman period.5 This is in accordance with the depiction of these deities on these staters. Athena and Apollo were probably also the main deities of Holmoi, as they are depicted on all denominations and coin types of Group 2 (only on the obols of Type 2.3 is there another male deity instead of Apollo).

In the left field of the obverse of these Side staters is a pomegranate as the emblem of the city. The Holmoi staters have a dolphin in this place (it also appears on the reverse of the third staters of Type 1.3) and it is apparently also used as the city emblem. Note that on Side staters from the 5th century BC, a combination of a pomegranate and a dolphin appears on the obverse, or a pomegranate on the obverse and a dolphin (alone or as a secondary symbol) or two dolphins on the reverse. Examples of such coin types are shown in Figures 5–6, but the variety of these types is greater. However, this probably has no connection with Holmoi, as the dolphin was a common symbol on coins of port cities. As for the Side-style coins, there is no such symbol on the obverse. The coiled serpent is not depicted separately as is the case with the pomegranate and dolphin, but is part of the depiction of Athena as one of her traditional attributes and is thus not a mint symbol.

Figure 5. Pamphylia, Side. Stater, 5th century BC. SNG France 2, 625; SNG Copenhagen 31, 368.

Figure 6. Pamphylia, Side. Stater, 5th century BC. Babelon 1907, p. 538, no. 882 (plate XXIV, 13).

In addition to the city symbols, the Holmoi, Side and Side-style staters differ in a number of other features, although they are strikingly similar in overall composition. An overview of these differences is given in Tables 1 (obverses) and 2 (reverses).

Feature	Holmoi	Side	Side-style
subject in the hands of Nike	aphlaston	wreath	wreath
Athena’s robe	draped	folded into straight pleats	folded into straight pleats
secondary symbol	dolphin	pomegranate	none
position of the lower part of the spear	to the right of Athena’s shield	behind Athena’s shield	resting on Athena’s leg
inscription	none (variants 2.1a–c) or ΔΙ in right field (variant 2.1d)	Sidetic script	Sidetic script
border	dotted	dotted	none

Table 1: Comparison of obverses

Feature	Holmoi	Side	Side-style
lower left field	empty	lit altar	lit altar
Apollo	half-draped in a himation	wearing short chiton and cloak, quiver over shoulder or nude but for chlamys over shoulders (a bird at the base of the laurel sceptre on some dies)	wearing short chiton and cloak, quiver over shoulder
secondary mark	none (variants 2.1a–b) or Α in upper left field (variants 2.1c–d)	none or Sidetic letters above altar	none
inscription	Greek city ethnic	Sidetic script	Sidetic script

Table 2: Comparison of reverses

Regardless of these differences, the similarity of these coin types is striking. In any case, we can rule out the possibility that the city of Side adopted the design of the staters of the city of Holmoi for two reasons. First, Side was a much more important city than Holmoi, as evidenced by the volume of its coinage in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. It is therefore unlikely that it would have adopted the design of a minor city for its highest coin denomination. Second, in the early 4th century BC Side minted somewhat different staters depicting the figures of Athena and Apollo (see footnote 4). Thus, the Holmoi-like staters did not appear suddenly, but are the result of the evolution of the design of the Side staters in the 4th century BC.

This similarity could therefore have one of the following three reasons:

1.	The decision to mint these coins was made at a supra-civic level. Thus, the city mints had to follow the same design or these coins were minted at a central mint for Persian military purposes (de Callataÿ 2022, pp. 6–7 and 20–21). This is a plausible explanation, although the great distance between the two cities speaks somewhat against this possibility. Holmoi and Side are about 230 km apart as the crow flies (however, a direct route is impossible due to the mountainous terrain) and about 270 km along the coast.6 It is unclear why two cities so distant, moreover in different regions, would be commissioned to mint coins (or have coins minted for them) with the same design.
2.	In the 4th century BC, a monetary convention existed between the cities of Holmoi and Side for some time (BMC 19, p. lxxxi). However, the economic rationale for such a monetary convention is not clear, given that Side was a much more important city than Holmoi and the two cities lay very far apart.
3.	Holmoi and Side worshipped the same pair of gods, Athena and Apollo. It is therefore possible that there was some form of religious bond between these cities and perhaps they practiced common worship on the occasion of the religious holidays of these deities, which is why Holmoi borrowed the design of the city of Side for its highest coin denomination. Moreover, the design of the early Holmoi issues was also taken from elsewhere, namely from the Kelenderis and Phaselis coins (see the catalogue sections Holmoi, Group 1, and Ships on early Holmoi coins). However, the similarity of the coins of the two cities resulting from their cultic connection is merely a speculative conjecture.

None of these possible explanations is entirely satisfactory, but none can probably be ruled out.

Credits:
Figure 1:	Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung, Auction 200 (10 October 2011), Lot 1970 (acsearch.info URL).
Figure 2:	Leu Numismatik, Auction 11 (14 May 2022), Lot 148 (acsearch.info URL).
Figure 3:	Papillon Numismatic, Auction 8 (19 September 2021), Lot 261 (acsearch.info URL).
Figure 4:	Nomos AG, Auction 12 (22 May 2016), Lot 108 (acsearch.info URL).
Figure 5:	Nomos AG, Auction 33 (9 June 2024), Lot 1416 (acsearch.info URL).
Figure 6:	Nomos AG, Auction 24 (22 May 2022), Lot 217 (acsearch.info URL).