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Type/Object Name: Ob: Gorgon head with snakes over tuna fish. | Re: Four-part square incuse punch.

Dates: 500-450 BCE

Medium: Electrum, Stater

Dimensions: Diameter 16.5 mm, Weight 16.07 g

Credit Line: On Loan to Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØArt Museum, courtesy of John Nebel. 

Notes: The Beginnings of Coinage. 

Cyzicus was a Greek city on the Sea of Marmara, in northwestern Türkiye. Cyzicus minted coins made of electrum (a gold-silver alloy) through the 4th century BCE, long after other places had switched to solid gold or silver in the 6th century. The obverse of this coin shows a Gorgon with snakes in her hair, as an emblem to ward off evil, and a tuna fish under her neck. The tuna fish was the symbol of the city Cyzicus, in part because there were large numbers of tuna in the nearby seas, and all of its coins feature a tuna. The reverse of Cyzicus’ coins was often stamped with a four-part incuse punch like this one. This coin was probably worth roughly a year’s wages for an unskilled laborer.

Collection: Coin, John Nebel

Bibliography: von Fritze 120; similar to Greenwell 75; Boston 1445.