Nomos AG
Auction 18 5 May 2019
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CILICIA. Ura (Kelenderis). Circa 460s-450s BC. Stater (Silver, 18 mm, 10.73 g, 9 h). 𐤀𐤓𐤄 ('RH in Aramaic) Ibex recumbent to right; all within border of dots. Rev. 𐤀𐤓𐤄 ('RH in Aramaic) City-wall with two towers; all within a border of dots in a shallow incuse square. For the coin: apparently unpublished, but see CNG 102, 2016, 572 for another example. For the city: R. H. Beal, The Location of Cilician Ura, Anatolian Studies 42, 1992, pp. 65-73. Very rare, one of half a dozen known examples. Lightly struck from slightly worn dies, otherwise, about extremely fine.
The city of Ura, a Bronze Age city well-known to historians of Hittite Asia Minor and its relations to the Mesopotamian kingdoms to the south, was hitherto basically unknown to numismatists. This is because the city's previously known coins were identified as being from an uncertain mint, as Traité II, 2, 1030, pl. CXXIII, 8, and 1031, pl. CXXIII, 9: both with an ibex on the obverse and an owl on the reverse. However, previously unpublished coins of the present type, with clearly legible legends, make their identification clear. In addition, we now know that the ancient city of Ura began to become increasingly Hellenized and, shortly after this coin was struck, changed its name to the now much more numismatically familiar Kelenderis! By the early 5th century Ura had, however, a well-known ancient school of medicine, which Hippocrates cited for its practice of uranalysis.
The city of Ura, a Bronze Age city well-known to historians of Hittite Asia Minor and its relations to the Mesopotamian kingdoms to the south, was hitherto basically unknown to numismatists. This is because the city's previously known coins were identified as being from an uncertain mint, as Traité II, 2, 1030, pl. CXXIII, 8, and 1031, pl. CXXIII, 9: both with an ibex on the obverse and an owl on the reverse. However, previously unpublished coins of the present type, with clearly legible legends, make their identification clear. In addition, we now know that the ancient city of Ura began to become increasingly Hellenized and, shortly after this coin was struck, changed its name to the now much more numismatically familiar Kelenderis! By the early 5th century Ura had, however, a well-known ancient school of medicine, which Hippocrates cited for its practice of uranalysis.