Smyrna (BC 190-50) AE 21

2nd-1st century BC. AE21 (8.83g), struck under magistrates Xarizenos and Trikkas. Head of Apollo, laureate, right / ΣMYPNAIΩN - XAPIZENOΣ / TPIKKAΣ, the poet Homer, wearing himation, standing left, holding scroll in left hand, right hand raised. VF, nice dark-green patina, adjustment marks on rev. Hoeft coll.

Strabo mentioned specifically this issue of bronze coinage from Smyrna: "there is also a library; and the 'Homereum', a quadrangular portico containing a shrine and a wooden statue of Homer; for the Smyrnaeans also lay especial claim to the poet and indeed a bronze coin of theirs is called Homereum. (Strabo, Geographica XIV, I.37, transl. by H.C. Jones, The Geography of Strabo, VI [Loeb, 1960], pp. 245-247)