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 Replies: 10 / Views: 2,024 |
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Pillar of the Community
France
1591 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
651 Posts |
Que chiquito esta la moneda.
Wow that is small.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
2830 Posts |
when I was a boy, our smallest coin was a silver threepence, which was 1.4g and had a diameter of 16mm. I thought that that was very small.
When I became a collector, I discovered the English Maundy series, the smallest of which is the maundy penny: 11.0 mm; 0.5 g
But some those ancients in your second link are less than half the diameter of a maundy penny.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
Wow! That is certainly smaller than the "Panama Pill" You could almost accidentally inhale that coin!  |
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Pillar of the Community
Norway
510 Posts |
Small indeed. But I have a lighter coin in my collection. This is listed as 0,1 grams. A Norwegian 1/4 penning (brakteat) 1177-1202 weighs in at 0,06 grams....my coin is almost paper thin, so the diameter is quite a bit larger than here.
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
Charles Seltman in his book "Greek coins" reports and photographs an Athenian 1/4 obol, of which it takes 196 of them to equal one tetradrachm.
That works out to 1/12 of a gramme, or only 83 milligrammes each.
The current silver value would work to about 10 cents.
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Pillar of the Community
 France
1591 Posts |
Litotes : can you post a picture of it ?
I'm curious :)
Those small coins may be very scarce for sure.
I suppose no one would hide them in a hoard (too small denomination) - and many were lost due to their size.
And once in the soil, they would desegregate very fast ...
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Pillar of the Community
Norway
510 Posts |
I can post pictures, but it is not so impressively small at first sight. It is the thinness that does it. Here you have a picture from front and back, and a third beside a quarter dollar to give the scale.    |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
Wow...that brakteat is about the size of an older Øre coin, but 1/3 the weight!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4778 Posts |
Where is it? I don't see it...  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1840 Posts |
Quote:
You could almost accidentally inhale that coin! Indeed. From the second link: Quote:
Evidence in literature suggests that these coins were carried in the owner's mouth. I guess it was cheaper than having a wallet. |
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Replies: 10 / Views: 2,024 |
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Posted 09/21/2011 8:49 pm
