New Greek Coins And Not Really Coins

well, I went on an ancient greek bender the last couple weeks.

here are the not really coins, these dolphin shaped artifacts from the greek colony of olbia on the black sea.



these things are smaller than I thought, the largest is 24 mm head to tail (straight measure) and 1.6 g, the smaller is 20 mm and 0.8 g.

there isn't much info on these online. there is a large range of dates for when they were produced ranging form the 6th century to the 3rd century. I think mine are 5th century. they come in a number of different sizes and shapes, and some have text (dare I say a legend?) on them. here is the wildwinds page with some of the larger ones and other coins from the area...
http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/gree...olbia/t.html

they seem to think they were possibly money and/or some type of religious item..associated with apollo. other than that...i don't know much about these things. i''d love to hear from those that do.


here are the coins...




the reverse is pretty rough, but the obverse is pretty good for the type...and kind of cute.

pisida, selge (pisidia was the central portion of what would be south western turkey today).
2nd-1st century BC
o:hercules, club over shoulder
r: winged thunderbolt, bow right, Sigma;-E below (i think?)
SNG 263 (i think?)
12 mm
1.7 g


and I finally got a macedonian shield coin...has been on the list for ages!




Kings of Macedon
Antigonos II Gonatas
Uncertain Macedonian mint
277-239 BC
O:Macedonian shield with head of Hercules (I believe this is the head of hercules and not a gorgon based on similar coins..note how small the worn head is).
R:Macedonian helmet; kerykeion to right, monogram of Antigonos to left.
SNG Alpha Bank 1008 var.(I'm not sure about this?)
16 mm
3.5 g