CILICIA. Anchiale. Circa 550-500 BC. Obol (Silver, 8 mm, 0.89 g, 6 h). Head of an Amazon to left, wearing a round earring and a tight headdress; behind, ankh. Rev. ’gkh ( Aramaic: agkh ) Grape cluster, within a beaded lozenge-shaped border in a shallow incuse square. Unpublished! For other denominations from the newly identified mint of Anchiale, see W. Müseler, Nergal and the Amazon, SM 69, 2009, pp. 102-103 and figs. 20-23, but the present type was unknown to the author. Apparently unique, a small coin of both numismatic and historical importance. With a dark patina as found. Some uncleaned deposits, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.

Anchiale, founded, according to Strabo, by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (669 - 631 BC), was a small coastal town in eastern Cilicia, between the cities of Tarsos and Soloi. The city seems to have produced an extremely limited series of coins in the later 5th century, and either adopted its types and symbols from the neighbouring cities of Soloi (the Amazon and the grape cluster) and Tarsos (the ankh), or took them from a pre-existing local repertoire.