Watch List notes:

Mysia, Kyzikos, electrum hekte, c. 410 BC, naked Helios kneeling right, holding foreparts of two horses prancing left and right by their bridles; below, tunny fish, rev., quadripartite incuse square, 2.67g, extremely fine and extremely rare, almost certainly the finest known. This coin published: Jameson 2194; SNG von Aulock 7312; Kraay/Hirmer 715. Other references: von Fritze 148; BMC 106. Provenance: R. Jameson Collection, Paris; Hans von Aulock Collection; Bank Leu 38, 13 May 1986, lot 98; DNW, London, 22 June 2011, lot 1017. Note: The engravers of the Kyzicene coinage drew their ideas from numerous sources, both local and foreign. Here, the inter-connected mythological relationships of Helios to Apollo; and Apollo as father to the city-founder Kyzikos point to an indigenous origin. The symmetrically balanced composition of the sun-god Helios flanked by the horses' foreparts must have been sculptural in inspiration and the observation that the composition is perfectly square (Head, NC, 1877, p. 170 [J.P. Six]) suggests that it has "been copied from a metope of a temple." (Greenwell, p. 59). Although full staters bearing this composition exist in some numbers, the hektes are exceedingly rare; the only example noted by Greenwell was acquired by the British Museum in 1841 and is well-worn. (7000 - 10000 GBP)