Watch List notes:

Mysa, Kyzikos, electrum stater, c. 400 BC, Persian archer seated right, examining arrow; tunny fish below, rev., quadripartite incuse square, 15.96g, good very fine and extremely rare. References: von Fritze 166, pl. V, 14 = Traité II 2639, pl. 174, 14 (example in St. Petersburg); K. Regling, Der grieschische Goldschatz von Prinkipo, ZfN 41, 1931, 32 and pl. 2 (example in Istanbul). Provenance: Ars Classica XVI, Geneva, 3 July 1933, lot 1351; Kunstfreund (Charles Gillet) Collection, Bank Leu/Münzen und Medaillen, Zurich, 28 May 1974, lot 209; Bank Leu 57, Zurich, 25 May 1993, lot 98; DNW, London, 27 September 2011, lot 2008. Note: Evidently one of only four known examples (as mentioned in the Bank Leu catalogue of 1993), this extremely rare type depicts with great clarity the archer wearing Persian headdress (kidaris), long robe (chiton) and close-fitting trousers (anaxyrides) seated with feet crossed and legs drawn up to support his arms while examining an arrow and with (traces of) a bow hanging from his left wrist. Over his shoulder is a surcoat, the right arm of which hangs empty. Commentators have suggested that the figure could be a representation of the Persian satrap Pharnabazos whose portrait appears on very rare Kyzicene tetradrachms of this period (as Kraay/Hirmer 718) and the image of a Persian satrap as archer can be seen on the later coinage of Datames at Tarsus (as Traité pl. 109, 4-7). (30000 - 50000 GBP)