The ketos coins of Caria
Résumé
The authors discuss a series of archaic silver fractions with a head of a ketos left or right on the obverse and a spiral or star within a lattice frame on the reverse, weighing slightly over 2.00 g. They argue that the fractions are hektai on the Milesian standard. On the basis of findspots, and the evidence of some later coins of similar design but in larger and smaller denominations, they attribute the hektai to Halikarnassos. They are interpreted as an emergency coinage struck in 499-497 BC to finance Karian participation in the Ionian Revolt and resistance to its suppression by the Persians (Herodotos V, 117-121).
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