Heritage World Coin Auctions
NYINC Signature Sale 3061 7-8 Jan 2018
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Ancients
THRACE. Abdera. Ca. 386-336 BC. AR stater (23mm, 11.41 gm, 12h). NGC AU 4/5 - 4/5. Struck 358/7 BC. [ABΔΗ], eagle-griffin with feathered wing springing left / ΕΠΙ ΤΗΛΕΜ[ΑΧΟ], Heracles advancing right, brandishing club in right hand, holding bow in left hand with lion skin draped over left arm; in lower right field, scallop shell, all within shallow incuse square. HGC 3.2, 1204 (R2). May 402. Very rare. Struck from dies of highly refined style, with deep gray iridescent toning.
The city of Abdera, located on the Thracian coastline across from the island of Thasos, took as its civic badge a griffin, a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle, and an eagle's talons as its front feet. The imagery of the griffin is particularly associated with northern Greece and Thrace; some have theorized that gold miners in the region encountered fossilized skeletons of the Protoceratops and thus developed their image of a ferocious creature that guards stores of gold.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 4000-5000 USD
THRACE. Abdera. Ca. 386-336 BC. AR stater (23mm, 11.41 gm, 12h). NGC AU 4/5 - 4/5. Struck 358/7 BC. [ABΔΗ], eagle-griffin with feathered wing springing left / ΕΠΙ ΤΗΛΕΜ[ΑΧΟ], Heracles advancing right, brandishing club in right hand, holding bow in left hand with lion skin draped over left arm; in lower right field, scallop shell, all within shallow incuse square. HGC 3.2, 1204 (R2). May 402. Very rare. Struck from dies of highly refined style, with deep gray iridescent toning.
The city of Abdera, located on the Thracian coastline across from the island of Thasos, took as its civic badge a griffin, a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle, and an eagle's talons as its front feet. The imagery of the griffin is particularly associated with northern Greece and Thrace; some have theorized that gold miners in the region encountered fossilized skeletons of the Protoceratops and thus developed their image of a ferocious creature that guards stores of gold.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 4000-5000 USD