Cox Tarsus

Cox, D. "A Tarsus Coin Collection in the Adana Museum" in NNM 92. (New York, 1941).

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In 1935, while excavating at Tarsus, Miss Hetty Goldman purchased a collection of eight hundred and fifteen coins which she generously presented to the Adana Museum. To Bey R. Yalgin, Director of the Adana Museum, I wish to express my appreciation of his kindness in permitting me to bring these coins to the United States, catalogue them and make casts. Upon examination, a brief publication of the collection seemed desirable. To Mr. E. T. Newell I am indebted for his ever-ready assistance and the use of his collection for comparison. Professor H. M. Hubble of Yale University has contributed explanations of the cryptic letters which appear on so many Cilician coins, stressing the fact that although some of the interpretations seem certain, others are tentative and conjectural. This paper owes much to both of these gentlemen, as well as to the friendly advice of other members of the Yale faculty.

More than six per cent of the collection is silver, largely Roman denarii, and Armenian tahégans—the remainder, in copper, ranges in time from Philip II of Macedon to an Austrian kreuzer of 1863. Most of the coins are ancient and from widely scattered parts of the Greek world. There are about fifty Roman pieces, a few from the Peloponnesus, Epirus and Ambracia, as well as fifty-six coins of the Macedonian kings, Philip, Alexander, Lysimachus, Cassander and Demetrius Poliorcetes, many of which were struck at Asia Minor mints. There are seventy-five Seleucid coins but only twenty Egyptian, fifteen Ptolemaic and five imperial. From the eastern provinces we have approximately forty coins of Syria (post-Seleucid), thirty from Cappadocia, twenty Phrygian, about fifteen each from Ionia and Pisidia as well as some three hundred from Cilicia. Of these three hundred Cilician pieces one hundred and thirty belong to Tarsus.

The former owner of the collection was in no sense an antiquarian; he bought antiques as an investment. He had no numismatic knowledge; to him the terms "worn," "unfamiliar" and "antique" were practically synonymous. It is, therefore, surprising how much interesting material was found among the coins collected in such a haphazard fashion. The owner told me that he had bought the coins locally, that is, in Tarsus or Mersina. The provenance is of some importance, but one can never be sure whether a coin of Ilium or Macedonia was brought to the shores of Cilicia by a sailor in the first or in the twentieth century.

The collection as a whole need not be described but there are a few new types, new magistrates' names and new dates which should be recorded. Specimens of coins published elsewhere, which by reason of their rarity, preservation or provenance seem worth mentioning, are also included.

Since the coinage of the Macedonian kings, especially of Alexander and his successors, still presents many numismatic problems, a list of these coins acquired in Tarsus may be useful.