Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 55 18 Apr 2019
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Cilicia, Tarsos AR Stater. Circa 455-400 BC. The walls of Tarsos, with three turrets visible, each turret surmounted by three merlons / Forepart of bull to right, key symbol to right; all within incuse square. BMC -; SNG von Aulock -; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG France -; SNG Levante -; Traité -; Casabonne -; MIMAA -; CNG 109, 190 corr. (Asia Minor, uncertain mint); Roma XIV, 326. 10.77g, 22mm, 6h.
Very Fine. Extremely Rare
From the inventory of a North American dealer.
The stylistically simple designs of both the obverse and reverse of this rare type point to it being one of the very earliest issue of Tarsos. We may of course identify this as a coin of Tarsos based on the use of the 'Key' symbol, as Casabonne calls it, that he argues should be considered as the emblem of the local dynastic power, i.e. that of the syennesis (see Casabonne, Le syennésis cilicien et Cyrus : l'apport des sources numismatiques pp.164). This, together with a rendering of the walls of Tarsos which appear in a more complete form on the later satrapal coinage of Mazaios (the towers always with three merlons) makes the identification certain. That the bull type does not appear ever again at Tarsos is surprising, however we could possibly infer that this is a symbolic representation of wealth, and chosen as an appropriate motif for what was likely a tribute payment made to the city's Achaemenid overlords.
Very Fine. Extremely Rare
From the inventory of a North American dealer.
The stylistically simple designs of both the obverse and reverse of this rare type point to it being one of the very earliest issue of Tarsos. We may of course identify this as a coin of Tarsos based on the use of the 'Key' symbol, as Casabonne calls it, that he argues should be considered as the emblem of the local dynastic power, i.e. that of the syennesis (see Casabonne, Le syennésis cilicien et Cyrus : l'apport des sources numismatiques pp.164). This, together with a rendering of the walls of Tarsos which appear in a more complete form on the later satrapal coinage of Mazaios (the towers always with three merlons) makes the identification certain. That the bull type does not appear ever again at Tarsos is surprising, however we could possibly infer that this is a symbolic representation of wealth, and chosen as an appropriate motif for what was likely a tribute payment made to the city's Achaemenid overlords.