Watch List notes:

GREEK COINS
Miletus (?)

Stater circa 575 BC, EL 14.04 g. Bull butting r. Rev. Rectangular incuse punch between two square incuse punches, all decorated with pellets and irregular strokes. Traité 38 and pl. 2, 1. Weidauer 131. ACGC 58. L. Mildenberg, Vestigia Leonis: Studien zur antiken Numismatik Israels, Palästinas und der östlichen Mittelmeerwelt, Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus 36, Fribourg, 1998, pl. I, 3 (this coin).
Of the highest rarity, only the third and by far the finest known specimen. A coin of
tremendous importance and fascination struck on a very large flan. Extremely fine


Ex Leu 28, 1981, 143; Sotheby's NY 4 December 1990, Hunt III 1; Tradart December 1991, 145; NGSA V, 2008, 112, and NGSA 6, 2010, 87 sales.
An incredible rarity amongst early electrum coinage, this beautiful stater is by far the finest of just three known specimens (the others are Weidauer 131 = ACGC 58, ex Robinson collection and Bourgey 1959, 477; and Weidauer 132 = Babelon 38, pl. 2, 1, ex Borrell 1840). Although the mint is uncertain, at 14.02 grams the weight standard is clearly Lydo-Milesian. The type of the butting bull seemingly does not occur elsewhere within these early electrum pieces, nor is it associated with a particular city of the region subsequently. However, the types found on early electrum of this period – which are quite varied – probably represent the personal badges of individuals, either rulers or persons in charge of minting, as opposed to the civic badges of different cities (with a few notable exceptions, of course).
The reverse punches used on this coin, with two smaller square punches either side of a long rectangular central punch, are all decorated with pellets and strokes. This same tripartite division of punches occurs with other obverse types, although sometimes instead of a series of pellets and strokes there are distinct depictions of animals or animal heads, such as on the famous staters with a recumbent lion within a rectangular border (see, e.g., Weidauer 126-127). However, there are also examples of the latter that employed the same punches that were used to stike the present coin – thus our probable attribution to Miletos here. This indicates a transition at Miletos, where there was certainly a need for a plentiful coinage, from the use of non-civic or personal types to a static civic type featuring the recumbent lion. According to Kraay, ACGC pp. 25-6, this would have occurred by the middle of the sixth century B.C. Of further interest, the designs of the two smaller squares sometimes also show that both were struck from the same punch, thus indicating that the punchmarks were applied separately. This is indeed the case here, with the designs of both of the smaller square punches being identical and therefore from the same punch, which was also the same punch that was used to strike Weidauer 132.