Unrecorded EL Fraction
IONIA(?), Uncertain. Circa 625-600 BC. EL Unit (12mm, 3.90 g). Uncertain standard. Parallel lines across field / Cross-hatch pattern. Unpublished. As made.
Ex Jonathan P. Rosen Collection; Roma XIII (23 March 2017), lot 146 (Macedon).
The attribution of this piece is uncertain. The only similar issue is an archaic silver fraction of Dardanos in Troas that features a cross-hatch pattern on the reverse. Electrum issues are tentatively attributed to that city, but feature a cock on the obverse (as on the same silver fraction), and are struck on the Phokaic and Lydo-Milesian standard, neither of which are compatible with the weight of the present coin. Moreover, the obverse here is dissimilar to any issues of Dardanos. The coin is unlike any electrum that has been attributed to the Thraco-Macedonian region, but the odd weight also makes an attribution to a mint in western Asia Minor quite difficult, though there are electrum pieces from that region whose weight standard remain unknown.
