MYSIA. Eleutherion (?). 4th century BC. Chalkous (Bronze, 11 mm, 1.00 g, 11 h). Head of Athena facing slightly to right, wearing triple-crested Attic helmet. Rev. EΛEY Lion walking right, head turned back to left. BMC 7 ('Leukai'). SNG Arikantürk 482-7. An exceptional example of this enigmatic issue. Minor corrosion, otherwise, extremely fine.


The only author to record the place name Eleutherion is Stephanus of Byzantium, who likely lived and wrote in the 6th century AD and mentions a village of this name. Such silence is suspicious and various modern scholars have hence questioned the existence of a Greek polis named Eleutherion in the 4th century BC, interpreting the issue as that of an unnamed polis (Miletos?) celebrating its ἐλευθερία, that is, its liberty. This is a tempting proposition, however, one would expect any city celebrating its liberty with a special coin emission to prominently boast its ethnic somewhere alongside the political slogan. Thus, this cataloguer prefers to keep the traditional attribution to an otherwise unrecorded polis Eleutherion for the time being, albeit acknowledging that this is far from being certain.