Classical Numismatic Group, LLC
Auction 100 - Part 1 7 October 2015
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AITOLIA, Aitolian League. Circa 220-205 BC. AV Stater (20mm, 8.38 g, 12h). Head of Athena right, wearing crested Corinthian helmet decorated with serpent, single-pendant earring, and necklace / Aitolos, wearing kausia and sheathed sword, seated right on pile of Gallic shields, holding spear upright in right hand, left hand holding small Nike standing right, holding wreath; AITΩΛΩN to left, monogram to right, ANA in exergue. Tsangari 573b = A.J. Reinach, "Un monument delphien: L'Étolie sur les trophées gaulois de Kallion" in JIAN 13 (1911), pl. V, 1 (this coin); BCD Akarnania 426 (= Tsangari 573a; same dies); Gulbenkian 915 = I.N. Svoronos, "Sylloge Helene N. Maurocordatou now in the possession of Georgio P. Baltatzi" in JIAN 13 (1911), 892, pl. 12, 32 (same dies). Good VF, scattered marks and nicks. Very rare Aitolian gold, one of three known of this issue.
From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams. Ex James A. Ferrendelli Collection (Classical Numismatic Group 43, 24 September 1997), lot 376; George & Robert Stevenson Collection (Classical Numismatic Group XXVI, 11 June 1993), lot 72; Numismatic Fine Arts I (March 1975), lot 117; Kaiser-Friedrich Museum Collection (Bode Museum, Berlin); Arthur Löbbecke Collection.
While the Macedonian Kingdom flourished, it was by no means master of the whole of Greece. In Aitolia a group of tribes developed into a powerful league that triumphantly defended the land from the Gallic invasions, which at one point had reached Delphi. The repulsion of the Gallic invaders in 279/8 BC was commemorated by a monument erected in the temple of Apollo at Delphi which represented the personification of Aitolia. The coins accurately display this monument (see Reinach, supra). A redoubtable female warrior, Aitolos is depicted holding a sheathed sword and seated in a defiant posture upon a heap of shields left behind by the enemy. Some of the shields look Macedonian, others Gallic. On the silver coins, a Gallic karnyx lies at her feet.
From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams. Ex James A. Ferrendelli Collection (Classical Numismatic Group 43, 24 September 1997), lot 376; George & Robert Stevenson Collection (Classical Numismatic Group XXVI, 11 June 1993), lot 72; Numismatic Fine Arts I (March 1975), lot 117; Kaiser-Friedrich Museum Collection (Bode Museum, Berlin); Arthur Löbbecke Collection.
While the Macedonian Kingdom flourished, it was by no means master of the whole of Greece. In Aitolia a group of tribes developed into a powerful league that triumphantly defended the land from the Gallic invasions, which at one point had reached Delphi. The repulsion of the Gallic invaders in 279/8 BC was commemorated by a monument erected in the temple of Apollo at Delphi which represented the personification of Aitolia. The coins accurately display this monument (see Reinach, supra). A redoubtable female warrior, Aitolos is depicted holding a sheathed sword and seated in a defiant posture upon a heap of shields left behind by the enemy. Some of the shields look Macedonian, others Gallic. On the silver coins, a Gallic karnyx lies at her feet.