Ira and Larry Goldberg Auctioneers
Auction 96 14-15 February 2017
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Paphlagonia, Sinope. Silver Drachm (6.01 g), ca. 490-425 BC. Head of sea-eagle left; below, talon above dolphin left. Reverse: Quadripartite incuse square, two raised and two sunken quarters; the upper sunken quarter containing E. Cf. SNG BM 1367-72; SNG Stancomb -; SNG von Aulock 6835 (this coin). Attractive old cabinet tone. Superb Extremely Fine. Estimate Value $400 - 500
The Hanbery Collection; Purchased privately from F. Kovacs. Ex E. Gans Collection; H. von Aulock Collection.
Pontic Sinope was founded by Milesian colonists as a center for trade on the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor in the seventh century BC. It served as the seaport for a caravan route that extended south to Mesopotamia and trafficked in grain, luxury goods, and a red earth pigment used throughout the Greek world for painting. This hematite-rich earth was known as sinopia or "Sinopic earth" after the city that exported it, but it was actually mined in the neighboring region of Cappadocia rather than in the environs of Sinope. In the fourth century BC the civic badge of Sinope was a seabird clutching a dolphin, but on early drachms such as this only the head appears and if the dolphin is present at all it is as a small subsidiary symbol.
The Hanbery Collection; Purchased privately from F. Kovacs. Ex E. Gans Collection; H. von Aulock Collection.
Pontic Sinope was founded by Milesian colonists as a center for trade on the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor in the seventh century BC. It served as the seaport for a caravan route that extended south to Mesopotamia and trafficked in grain, luxury goods, and a red earth pigment used throughout the Greek world for painting. This hematite-rich earth was known as sinopia or "Sinopic earth" after the city that exported it, but it was actually mined in the neighboring region of Cappadocia rather than in the environs of Sinope. In the fourth century BC the civic badge of Sinope was a seabird clutching a dolphin, but on early drachms such as this only the head appears and if the dolphin is present at all it is as a small subsidiary symbol.