This handcrafted glass jewelry collection, by Michael Michaud, features motifs from an assortment of coins in the Getty Museum’s antiquities collection. Each piece captures the exquisite detail in vibrant cast glass, showcasing the original artistic quality of each ancient coin. Made exclusively for the Getty Museum.

- Dimensions: 1 inch diameter
- Materials: Glass, 24K gold plate, brass
- Made in the USA
- Item#:  121B

This silver tetradrachm (four-drachma coin) is stamped on the obverse with a bee within a dotted border, with the Greek letters ‘epsilon’ and ‘phi’, to either side.

The bee, stag, and palm are all emblems of Ephesos, a Greek city on the west coast of Turkey. This city was an important center of worship for the Greek goddess Artemis, and the images on Ephesian coinage typically promote this association.

The bee was originally the symbol of an early Anatolian goddess who the Greeks later identified with their goddess, Artemis; so close was the connection that the priestesses of the goddess were called "honey bees." The two Greek letters ‘epsilon’ ‘phi,’ are an abbreviation for Ephesos.

Coin (tetradrachm) of Ephesos
East Greek (Ephesian), Ionia, 390-380 BCE
Silver
27 mm
80.NH.152.62