The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

UNPUBLISHED COINS OF ATHENS AND ELEUSIS. 79
and is probably from the same die; the two agreeing
in the minute peculiarity of having one of the two leave s
of olive on the reverse stamped on the border of the incuse
square
instead of within it. Another coin of the same
period, the rarity of which is, perhaps,
overlooked in con-
sequence of its extreme smallness, is a tetartemorion,
or fourth part of an obolus, the minutest of all Athenian
coins, having only a sprig of olive on the reverse instead
of the crescent, which is the customary symbol on these
tiny coins. 10 Both Colonel Leake and Baron Prokesch
Osten, who have bestowed especial attention upon these
minute subdivisions of Athenian silver coinage, notice
only the crescent as the characteristic type of this, the
lowest denomination of all. M. Beule alone recognises
the two varieties. After enumerating the subdivisions of
the obolus, he
"
: says Enfin le tartemorion, ou quart
d'obole, a un seul croissant. Parfois, mais cela est tres
rare, une pousse d'olivier remplace le croissant" (p. 54).
On the next page he gives a very accurate figure of this
little coin. It is worthy of notice that neither on his
figure nor on my specimen are the letters A0E found,
which invariably occur on the coins of similar denomina-
tion with the crescent. Probably the engraver found
it impossible to introduce them from want of space ;
and
this circumstance may possibly have led to the change of
type and the adoption of the crescent, which afforded
more space in the field in which to insert the three
letters.
I come now to the coins of the later style, the general
characters of which are too well known to collectors, as
10 The specimen in my collection weighs only two grains
and three tenths. There is none in the British Museum.