Analysed coins Analysis

Analysed coins

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

The numbers of analysed coins are given in Table 1. Coins whose weight is unknown or unreliable, or that are excessively corroded or damaged, are excluded from the analysis.

Corpus	Number of coins as of 2 November 2025
	Total	Excluded	Analysed
Anemourion	2		2
Aphrodisias, Staters	4		4
Aphrodisias, Obols	21		21
Holmoi, Group 1, staters	9		9
Holmoi, Group 1, third staters	1		1
Holmoi, Group 1, obols	1		1
Holmoi, Group 2, staters	9	1	8
Holmoi, Group 2, obols	83	4	79
Holmoi, Group 2, hemiobols	5	1	4
Kelenderis, Staters – Group 1	14	1	13
Kelenderis, Staters – Group 2	249	1	248
Kelenderis, Staters – Group 3	272	4	268
Kelenderis, Third staters	36	2	34
Kelenderis, Obols	239	3	236
Kelenderis, Hemiobols	53	1	52
Nagidos, Staters – Group 1	143	1	142
Nagidos, Staters – Group 2	249	1	248
Nagidos, Staters – Group 3	202	7	195
Nagidos, Third staters	12		12
Nagidos, Silver fractions, obols	233	1	232
Nagidos, Silver fractions, hemiobols	3	1	2
Pseudo-Kelenderis mints	20	2	18

Table 1: Numbers of analysed coins

Analysis

In the section Staters of Cilicia Trachea, the staters of Anemourion, Aphrodisias, Holmoi, Kelenderis, Nagidos and the Pseudo-Kelenderis mints are divided into two phases representing the basic development of the weight standard. See the column ‘Staters’ in Table 2. Based on the Coin Catalogue and the weight analyses of these mints, lower denominations can also be assigned to these two phases, as shown in the columns ‘Third staters’, ‘Obols’ and ‘Hemiobols’ in Table 2.

The grey shaded cells in Table 2 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 from Nagidos, and therefore this denomination is not included in Table 2 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 2: Distribution of coins into Phases 1 and 2

The numbers of analysed coins (i.e. coins in the Coin Corpus included in the weight analyses of individual mints) for each combination of mint and denomination, together with the total number of coins for each denomination in each phase of the weight-standard development, are shown in Table 3.

		Staters	Third staters	Obols	Hemiobols
Phase 1	Anemourion
	Aphrodisias
	Holmoi	9	1	80	4
	Kelenderis	481	34	223	52
	Nagidos	372	12	214	2
	Pseudo-Kelenderis	17
	Total	879	47	517	58
Phase 2	Anemourion	2
	Aphrodisias	4		21
	Holmoi	8
	Kelenderis	48		13
	Nagidos	213		18
	Pseudo-Kelenderis	1
	Total	276		52

Table 3: Numbers of coins

Table 4 shows the descriptive statistics for 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). As expected, the coefficient of variation (CV) increases as the denomination decreases.

		Staters	Third staters	Obols	Hemiobols
Phase 1	Count	879	47	517	58
	Mean	10.63	3.45	0.72	0.36
	Median	10.67	3.48	0.72	0.36
	Std. Dev.	0.21	0.13	0.10	0.07
	IQR	0.19	0.15	0.12	0.10
	CV	0.02	0.04	0.13	0.18
Phase 2	Count	276		52
	Mean	9.94		0.66
	Median	9.98		0.64
	Std. Dev.	0.27		0.12
	IQR	0.28		0.16
	CV	0.03		0.18

Table 4: Descriptive statistics of denominations

An analysis of the relationship between the weights of staters and lower denominations is presented in Table 5. The column ‘Denomination ratio’ indicates the theoretical weight ratio of staters to the 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 mean weight of staters to the mean weight of the respective lower denomination. The ‘Seigniorage’ columns show the percentage by which this weight ratio exceeds its theoretical value given in the ‘Denomination ratio’ column (the values are rounded to one decimal place).

For example, the mean weight of staters in Phase 1 is 10.6301 g and the mean weight of obols in Phase 1 is 0.7171 g (the values in Table 4 are rounded to two decimal places, i.e. to 10.63 and 0.72), so their ratio is 10.6301/0.7171 = 14.8237, i.e. 14.82 after rounding. Thus, approximately 14.82 obols were struck from the amount of metal corresponding to one stater instead of the theoretical 12 obols, i.e. 2.82 obols more. This corresponds to seigniorage (the mint’s gross profit) of 2.82/12 = 23.5%.

Table 5 shows that seigniorage was very high for obols and hemiobols and that this minting premium increased in Phase 2. However, these are only preliminary, very rough estimates, and refining them requires taking into account the different relative weight losses of higher and lower denominations due to wear and corrosion (smaller denominations lose proportionately more weight than larger ones; see Hemmy 1938). A more thorough analysis will be published later.

	Denomination ratio	Phase 1		Phase 2
		Ratio	Seigniorage	Ratio	Seigniorage
Staters / Third staters	3	3.08	2.7%
Staters / Obols	12	14.82	23.5%	15.13	26.1%
Staters / Hemiobols	24	29.63	23.4%

Table 5: Weight ratios and seigniorage