Nomos AG
Auction 17 26 Oct 2018
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
AKARNANIA. Leukas. Circa 320-280 BC. Stater (Silver, 21.5 mm, 8.58 g, 2 h). Λ Pegasos flying left; below. Rev. Head of Athena to right; behind her neck, Α; behind, vine with grape cluster over a volute krater placed on a stand (a hypostaton). Calciati 128 var. (same reverse die, but Pegasos flying right). With this symbol, extremely rare and most interesting. Extremely fine.
From the Vineyard Collection, ex Triton I, 2 December 1997, 477.
This coin makes it clear that we, and so many others, have incorrectly identified the vessel that appears on the reverses of Theban staters, and in many other places; this misidentification does not solely come from the coin trade: it is everywhere! For example, in BMC Boeotia, published in 1884, and, among other places, in Head's Historia Numorum and in the catalogues of the de Hirsch, de Luynes, and du Chastel Collections. When this coin appeared in Triton I in 1997, the symbol was described as being an amphora (the stand was not noticed); the same vessel, on a Boeotian stater this time, but described as having an elongated foot (whatever that might be), appeared as BCD Boiotia (Triton IX, 2006) 499. The problem is that NO tall-handled, wide-mouthed amphora actually exists (there is the somewhat similar S. Italian vessel, the nestoris but the handles differ); what this actually is, is a volute krater. Yet many scholars have long known this. The late Colin Kraay, in Kraay-Hirmer identified the vessel as a krater (Thasos 438, Thebes 459, and Lamia 469); and Jenkins, in Gulbenkian II, termed it a volute-krater (Thebes 504 and Melos 562). Brett also termed it a volute krater in the Boston catalogue (however, by 1976 Kraay termed it an amphora again in ACGC!). Why this has not been carried over into all numismatic literature is beyond me. In any case, this is certainly what we have here! And kraters are different from amphorae: note the amphorae on the early obols from Lokroi Opuntii, or those from Terone (Gulbenkian II 427-429, Kraay 401, and, in this catalogue, the Terone, above lot 92), or the wonderful stater from an uncertain northern Greek mint that shows two nymphs carrying an amphora (Kraay 374). Note the difference between this vessel and that of the following lot.
From the Vineyard Collection, ex Triton I, 2 December 1997, 477.
This coin makes it clear that we, and so many others, have incorrectly identified the vessel that appears on the reverses of Theban staters, and in many other places; this misidentification does not solely come from the coin trade: it is everywhere! For example, in BMC Boeotia, published in 1884, and, among other places, in Head's Historia Numorum and in the catalogues of the de Hirsch, de Luynes, and du Chastel Collections. When this coin appeared in Triton I in 1997, the symbol was described as being an amphora (the stand was not noticed); the same vessel, on a Boeotian stater this time, but described as having an elongated foot (whatever that might be), appeared as BCD Boiotia (Triton IX, 2006) 499. The problem is that NO tall-handled, wide-mouthed amphora actually exists (there is the somewhat similar S. Italian vessel, the nestoris but the handles differ); what this actually is, is a volute krater. Yet many scholars have long known this. The late Colin Kraay, in Kraay-Hirmer identified the vessel as a krater (Thasos 438, Thebes 459, and Lamia 469); and Jenkins, in Gulbenkian II, termed it a volute-krater (Thebes 504 and Melos 562). Brett also termed it a volute krater in the Boston catalogue (however, by 1976 Kraay termed it an amphora again in ACGC!). Why this has not been carried over into all numismatic literature is beyond me. In any case, this is certainly what we have here! And kraters are different from amphorae: note the amphorae on the early obols from Lokroi Opuntii, or those from Terone (Gulbenkian II 427-429, Kraay 401, and, in this catalogue, the Terone, above lot 92), or the wonderful stater from an uncertain northern Greek mint that shows two nymphs carrying an amphora (Kraay 374). Note the difference between this vessel and that of the following lot.