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November Auction 2015 13 November 2015
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PANGAEAN DISTRICT, SILVER TETRADRACHM OF MENDE, ca. 430 BC, 17.167g, 6h. Noe 90 (this coin). Very rare. Old cabinet tone. Perfectly centered and struck. A magnificent specimen of fine classical style, issued before the capture of Mende by Athens in 423. Choice extremely fine. Numismatica Ars Classica 2011 (59) lot 551; former Joannes Kondylis collection, Sothebys 1924 lot 46; from the Kalliandra hoard (1913)
Mende was famous in the ancient world as an exporter of wine, and presumably made her fine issues of silver tetradrachms from the surplus of her trade. The iconography refers, of course, to this: Dionysos, the god of wine, reclines on his sacred animal (the donkey) and contemplates the cup from which he has drunk on obverse, while the grape vine and bunches are on reverse. These coins were almost unknown until the discovery in 1913 of a hoard at Kalliandra, the ancient site of Mende.
Mende was famous in the ancient world as an exporter of wine, and presumably made her fine issues of silver tetradrachms from the surplus of her trade. The iconography refers, of course, to this: Dionysos, the god of wine, reclines on his sacred animal (the donkey) and contemplates the cup from which he has drunk on obverse, while the grape vine and bunches are on reverse. These coins were almost unknown until the discovery in 1913 of a hoard at Kalliandra, the ancient site of Mende.