Heritage World Coin Auctions
NYINC Signature Sale 3051 8-9 January 2017
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Ancients
LESBOS. Mytilene. Ca. 454-428/7 BC. EL hecte (10mm, 2.56 gm, 12h). NGC AU 5/5 - 3/5, Fine Style. Bearded head of Priapus right, wearing tainia / Head of nymph right, wearing sphendone, within incuse square. HGC 6, 969. Bodenstedt 43. Very rare. Minor surface marks, otherwise nicely toned, with a pair of sculptural heads in high Classical style.
Priapus, god of fertility and male virility, is seldom shown in portrait form on Greek coinage. He was the offspring of Aphrodite and either Dionysus or Hermes and is usually shown as a stunted figure with a grotesquely enlarged phallus; since he was also cursed with impotence, his endowment did him little good and he usually seen as a comically suffering character. His cult was well established in Lampsacus in Mysia, which struck rare silver tetradrachms with a portrait strongly resembling the evocative image on this rare electrum hecte.
Estimate: 1500-2000 USD
LESBOS. Mytilene. Ca. 454-428/7 BC. EL hecte (10mm, 2.56 gm, 12h). NGC AU 5/5 - 3/5, Fine Style. Bearded head of Priapus right, wearing tainia / Head of nymph right, wearing sphendone, within incuse square. HGC 6, 969. Bodenstedt 43. Very rare. Minor surface marks, otherwise nicely toned, with a pair of sculptural heads in high Classical style.
Priapus, god of fertility and male virility, is seldom shown in portrait form on Greek coinage. He was the offspring of Aphrodite and either Dionysus or Hermes and is usually shown as a stunted figure with a grotesquely enlarged phallus; since he was also cursed with impotence, his endowment did him little good and he usually seen as a comically suffering character. His cult was well established in Lampsacus in Mysia, which struck rare silver tetradrachms with a portrait strongly resembling the evocative image on this rare electrum hecte.
Estimate: 1500-2000 USD