Wappenmünzen Hemiobol

A small hemiobol from the earliest Athenian silver series, the 'Wappenmünzen' (Heraldic Coins), from the period of Peisistratos, 561–546 BC. Diameter 6 mm, 0.31 grams, the design is an apple, and the reverse is an incuse punch. Fourteen different designs have been identified in the series, including an issue featuring an owl. The 19th-century theory that these were the family crests of aristocratic houses is no longer supported; the general understanding is that they were the marks of the issuing magistrates. Only the name 'Heraldic Coins' remains as a trace of this discarded hypothesis.