the British Museums excavations of the Artemision at Ephesusduring1904?5, ninety-three small pieces of metal were discovered, all buttwo of them conforming to the Milesian weight standard and most of themstruck with an image on one side. Nineteen of these were a hoard foundinside a pot. The largest weighed half of a Milesian stater; the smallestweighed only one ninety-sixth of a stater, a mere seventh of a gram. They aremade of electrum, an alloy of the gold and silver that occur naturally in thearea of Mount Tmolus and were anciently panned out of the Pactolus Riverthat ?ows past the Lydian capital of Sardis.1Two of these items were not coins at all but merely dumps, small blobs of metal dropped onto a surface and cooled there. Three more were marked onone side with a sign known to numismatists as anincuse square,the mark of ahammer designed to make a deep impression when used to strike soft metal.2Four more pieces show an incuse square ononeside and a pattern of striationson the other. The other coins continue to show an incuse square on one side,1. The entire hoard was published by Barclay V. Head as chapter5of Hogarth,Ephesus.2. G■obl (1:149) presumes that these items must have had a design that was either ineffectively transferred or worn away with time, ■for an incuse strike without a design into which it issupposed to drive the metal is senseless■; but see the text immediately following for Kraay■sreconstruction.93