Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XIV 21 Sep 2017
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Thrace, Ainos AR Tetradrachm. Circa 412-409 BC. Head of Hermes right, wearing petasos / Goat walking right, kerykeion before, AIN above; all within incuse square. May 255c; Kraay-Hirmer 422; Locker-Lampson 131; SNG Lockett 1157. 16.50g, 25mm, 6h.
Extremely Fine. Beautiful late classical style.
Ex Roma Numismatics V, 23 March 2013, lot 292.
This portrait is one of the last profile heads to appear on the coinage of Ainos, and its severe features make it one of the most striking of the entire series.
The city of Ainos began striking its first tetradrachms only after the expulsion of the Persians from northern Greece following Xerxes' defeat at Salamis. Its early issue of coinage came to an end with the Athenian coinage decree of 449 BC, but the mint began to strike again around 435 BC, finally ending when Philip of Macedon conquered the city in 342 BC. The coinage of Ainos consistently displayed Hermes on one side and a goat on the other, the reasons for which are that the goat represented the source of Ainos' prosperity, and Hermes was the patron god of the city. According to a poem by Kallimachos, the sculptor Epeios, who constructed the Trojan Horse, also made a wooden statue (xoanon) of Hermes, which was washed out to sea and recovered by fishermen on the Hebros river. The fishermen, thinking it just a piece of driftwood, tried to burn it in their bonfire. When it failed to burn they took fright and threw it back into the sea, which promptly cast it back again. The natives accepted it as a relic of the gods, and erected the sanctuary of Hermes Perpheraios (the Wanderer) at the future site of Ainos.
Extremely Fine. Beautiful late classical style.
Ex Roma Numismatics V, 23 March 2013, lot 292.
This portrait is one of the last profile heads to appear on the coinage of Ainos, and its severe features make it one of the most striking of the entire series.
The city of Ainos began striking its first tetradrachms only after the expulsion of the Persians from northern Greece following Xerxes' defeat at Salamis. Its early issue of coinage came to an end with the Athenian coinage decree of 449 BC, but the mint began to strike again around 435 BC, finally ending when Philip of Macedon conquered the city in 342 BC. The coinage of Ainos consistently displayed Hermes on one side and a goat on the other, the reasons for which are that the goat represented the source of Ainos' prosperity, and Hermes was the patron god of the city. According to a poem by Kallimachos, the sculptor Epeios, who constructed the Trojan Horse, also made a wooden statue (xoanon) of Hermes, which was washed out to sea and recovered by fishermen on the Hebros river. The fishermen, thinking it just a piece of driftwood, tried to burn it in their bonfire. When it failed to burn they took fright and threw it back into the sea, which promptly cast it back again. The natives accepted it as a relic of the gods, and erected the sanctuary of Hermes Perpheraios (the Wanderer) at the future site of Ainos.