Obvious Magistrate Of "Menekλhσ", Artemis, Wreath, No Id, 2 Coins

'Meneklhs' seems to have a variety of coins with his name plastered over them, including tetradrachmae from Alabanda. Another Meneklhs has his name on a provincial issue of Caligula, but this one is clearly greek to my eye.

It bears great resemblance to some Seleucid issues, but clearly lacks any kingly title on the Apollo side. I can at least give one side a good description:

...HMΩN, Apollo standing left, examining arrow in right hand, holding bow in left, snake to left.

And the other side:

Artemis standing right, bow in left had, drawing arrow from quiver with right hand, MENEKΛHΣ vertical in left field, ...?* vertical in right field, all within wreath.

*this reverse type usually comes with a hound springing right at Artemis' feet at this location...but this is centuries later in 3rd c. Roman provincial mints. Maybe it is a legend, maybe it is a crude hound.

Ben;

I just wanted to make one more note. The field of ancient coin study may be unique in that if there is a true series of coins unpublished, and an example is found, that is accepted as possible, but it does not make the coin important. (The old expression I always hated was "an ancient coin is worth what a person wants to pay for it" comes to mind.) Like if you were studying 19th century bicycles and you came upon a variant that was not in the literature, a few examples, that would be an important find. But this field is full of unpublished examples anyone seems to be able to stumble upon. Or like I tell my students. The chemistry of Carbon is important as we are Carbon based life forms. There are books written as to every mechanism carbon can do with any element. But since we are not Osmium based you get a couple of lines in a book saying we know osmium makes a few compounds with a few other elements and it is not even important to merit a dedicated section of the last chapter of a text. Let alone explore the reactions that make these osmium molecules.

No and I never clean coins. I probably will when I retire but for now I just handle them and research them as they cross my desk....

In the Trojan war, a spearman by the name of Meneklos is struck down and, in anguish over it, Memnon rushes forward and slays a large number of men. It is clearly fanciful, but if you squint at ....HMON, you could almost pretend it reads MEMNON. Just a silly aside, but it is interesting to consider that these names that mean almost nothing to us today were once commonly held and recognised.

Mystery solved!