Heritage World Coin Auctions
ANA Signature Sale 3066 17 Aug 2018
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Ancients
MYSIA. Cyzicus. Ca. 5th-4th centuries BC. EL stater (22mm, 15.94 gm). NGC Choice XF ★ 5/5 - 4/5, Fine Style. Apollo seated half-left, wearing laurel wreath and chiton draped from waist, branch upward in right hand; reclining on griffin flying right, tunny right below / Quadripartite incuse mill-sail pattern with rough interior surfaces. Von Fritze I 151. Greenwell 21. SNG France –. Boston MFA 1545 = Warren 1438. Extremely rare - only one example found in sales archives. Remarkably detailed in fine style with matte surfaces, the obverse clearly carefully engraved by the celator to tell a story.
Cyzicus was an important city on the northwestern coast of Anatolia, well positioned to take advantage of trade across and through the Sea of Marmara. Its coinage was in more or less continuous production from about 550 BC to circa AD 630, a nearly 1,200 year span unmatched by any other ancient mint. The tunny (tuna) fish was the symbol of Cyzicus from mid-6th century BC, when the city began striking electrum staters and fractions that circulated so widely the generic term for a stater became a cyzicenus. The fishing trade was critical to the economy of Cyzicus and it is likely the tunny fish became a form of pre-coinage currency, which carried over to become a mint symbol after the invention of coinage in nearby Lydia.
The obverse on this remarkable stater likely depicts a myth mentioned by Herodotos (3.116) with Hyperborean Apollo on the way to where griffins controlled gold.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 45000-60000 USD
MYSIA. Cyzicus. Ca. 5th-4th centuries BC. EL stater (22mm, 15.94 gm). NGC Choice XF ★ 5/5 - 4/5, Fine Style. Apollo seated half-left, wearing laurel wreath and chiton draped from waist, branch upward in right hand; reclining on griffin flying right, tunny right below / Quadripartite incuse mill-sail pattern with rough interior surfaces. Von Fritze I 151. Greenwell 21. SNG France –. Boston MFA 1545 = Warren 1438. Extremely rare - only one example found in sales archives. Remarkably detailed in fine style with matte surfaces, the obverse clearly carefully engraved by the celator to tell a story.
Cyzicus was an important city on the northwestern coast of Anatolia, well positioned to take advantage of trade across and through the Sea of Marmara. Its coinage was in more or less continuous production from about 550 BC to circa AD 630, a nearly 1,200 year span unmatched by any other ancient mint. The tunny (tuna) fish was the symbol of Cyzicus from mid-6th century BC, when the city began striking electrum staters and fractions that circulated so widely the generic term for a stater became a cyzicenus. The fishing trade was critical to the economy of Cyzicus and it is likely the tunny fish became a form of pre-coinage currency, which carried over to become a mint symbol after the invention of coinage in nearby Lydia.
The obverse on this remarkable stater likely depicts a myth mentioned by Herodotos (3.116) with Hyperborean Apollo on the way to where griffins controlled gold.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 45000-60000 USD