Watch List notes:

Greek Coins
Mysia, Cyzicus

Stater 5th-4th century BC, EL 15.87 g. Lapith kneeling on back of fallen centaur r.; strangling him with l. arm and holding sword in r. hand, while the centaur seizes the Lapith's head with his l. hand and punches him at side with his r. Below, tunny r. Rev. Quadripartite incuse square. von Fritze 170. Boston 1547.
Exceedingly rare, only very few specimens known. An interesting and finely executed
composition of high style. Struck on a full flan and about extremely fine
Ex Jules Furthman collection (Kosoff 13 October 1965) 65.Electrum staters of Cyzicus have long been admired for their distinctive and often energetic designs. This particular image, however, is exciting even by Cyzicene standards, for we witness the life-and-death struggle of a centaur and a sword- wielding Lapith. This episode was familiar enough to the Greeks to be represented on a series of metopes on the Parthenon.The origin of the Lapiths, an Aeolian Greek tribe from Thessaly, pre-dated Greek history, and was steeped in mythology. The Lapiths were said to have been kin of the Centaurs, and their close connection sometimes led to conflict. The best- known of their battles occurred when Peirithoüs, king of the Lapiths, invited the centaurs as guests to his wedding. As the centaurs became increasingly drunk, the savage side of their nature emerged and they tried to abduct the bride and to rape or abduct other Lapith women. In the fighting that broke out there were many casualties, but the Lapiths triumphed and were able to expel the centaurs from Thessaly.Though this rare type was not recorded by Greenwell in his 1887 study of Cyzicene electrum, he recognized that a centaur that appears on another issue of staters, galloping with his head turned back, as he holds a branch, was presumably shown in battle with the Lapiths. The existence of this type serves to confirm his observation. He rejected the idea that the centaur type had any connection to the Dionysiac cycle, instead preferring to believe it was selected for its relevance to Heracles or to Jason, who had been raised by the centaur Chiron.