Watch List notes:

Greek Coins
The Cyclades, Seriphos

Stater circa 530, AR 11.03 g. Frog seen from above. Rev. Incuse square irregularly divided. Rosen 242 (these dies). Dewing 1967. Sheedy 6 (erroneously listed as 3).
Exceedingly rare. An issue of great importance and fascination,
old cabinet tone and good very fine
Ex Sotheby's sale 9-10 March 1989, 543.The 'frog staters' attributed to the Cycladic island of Seriphos are among the most distinctive of all Archaic Greek coins. These un-inscribed coins are attributed to this small island on the grounds that their style and fabric are reasonably consistent with Cycladic issues, and that Seriphos was well known as home to a large population of noisy frogs, which Sheedy describes as inhabiting waters generated by rain and a seasonal river.Relatively few frog staters are known, and they appear to form a tightly-knit group, making it possible – if not likely – that the entire mintage was produced in a compressed period, if not a single episode, perhaps in about 530 B.C.The historical impression of this rocky island of about 75 square kilometers, with just a single harbor of consequence, is one of impoverishment. None the less, it was a member of the Delian League from its inception; Sheedy notes that the islanders had sufficient resources to pay two talents into the league's coffers in 451/0 B.C., and later half that amount. Also, Herodotus (3.46) records that it contributed a pentakonter to the Greek effort at Salamis to defeat the Second Persian invasion.The dearth of evidence regarding Seriphos in antiquity makes it difficult to determine if the few records suggestive of prosperity – an issue of coinage, the sponsorship of a war vessel, and contributions to the Delian League – are signs of a consistent level of economic productivity, or merely are spikes of prosperity that individually have left a lasting impression.In his corpus on the coin of the Cyclades, Sheedy listed this coin as die-coupling number 3, but it is quite evident that it should have been assigned to number 6. This is quite clear for both obverse and reverse; in particular, specimen A (ex Helbing and Auctiones) presents the same peculiar die-break on the obverse below the frog's legs.Sheedy also states that all coins attributed to Seriphos, with the exception of the British Museum specimen, could be forgeries. Nevertheless, these coins have been on the market for over 100 years and if the entire series is an invention of the 19th century, it is almost impossible at this point to prove it. Moreover, the specimen in the British Museum that Sheedy deemed to be genuine, has the same characteristics of the other coins.