Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XIX 26-27 Mar 2020
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Cyprus, Golgoi(?) AR Stater. Circa 460-430 BC. Nude male figure (Herakles?) standing to right, holding tree in left hand, and raising labrys (double-axe) in right hand / Bull standing to right on ground line; laurel branch above. SNG France 441 (same dies, catalogued as uncertain Cilician mint); cf. E. S. G. Robinson, "Greek Coins Acquired by The British Museum 1938-1948" in NC 1948, p. 44 and pl. V, 1; otherwise unpublished; but cf. BMC Cyprus, xlvi (e), pl. XXV, 10 for a third-stater from the same issue as the BM coin. 11.10g, 23mm, 7h.
Extremely Fine. Of the greatest rarity - the second known example and the only one in private hands.
From the collection of an antiquarian, Bavaria c. 1960s-90s.
This is the second known example of an extremely rare issue known otherwise only from a single stater in the possession of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. A further stater of the same mint with very similar types was acquired by the British Museum c. 1938-1948, and a corresponding trite was already in the possession of the British Museum at that time. Robinson revised the description previously made of the trite by J. P. Six (NC 1897, pp. 206-7) and repeated by Hill (BMC Cyprus) that described the figure as Herakles, who on the stater can evidently be seen to carry not a club but a labrys, and no trace of a lion-skin can be discerned; moreover the bow he was supposed to hold in his left hand is actually a branch of one of the trees. Robinson observes that "his double-axe points to a pre-Hellenic origin, and the fir-trees suggest high altitudes. He is perhaps a Zeus, like the Carian Labraundos, developed out of an Anatolian sky god, and blasting the fir-trees on the mountain-top with his lightnings. Alternatively he may be a native hero, and the trees may represent a grove. In any case the curious posture of the bull on the new stater makes it tempting to interpret obverse and reverse types in close conjunction as illustrating some local myth."
Robinson remarked also that the bull is left as the only remaining link to the group of coins attributed to Golgoi, and he considered it "a very feeble link indeed". Indeed, the attribution to Golgoi of any coinage at all has been more recently challenged; it does not appear in contemporary sources, and Collobier (1991) concludes there is no evidence for Golgoi as an independent state in this period, citing Hill (1949). The archaeological evidence does point to the existence of a fortified town in C5-C4, but this does not seem reason enough to consider Golgoi even a weak polis; however Golgoi does seem to have been a relatively important cult centre "en dehors des capitales" (see Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis p. 1225).
Michel Amandry (Un statère inédit de Golgoi (?) au Cabinet des Médailles, 1991) published the BnF coin that is struck from the same dies as the present example, but ignores the arguments of Robinson in favour of the original attribution by Six to Golgoi, citing the bas-relief found at Golgoi and presently house at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, which depicts Eurytion, guardian of the cattle of Geryon trying to hide the animals from Herakles with a fir tree.
It remains only to be said therefore that the present type is the excessively rare product of an uncertain mint that will require further find spot evidence to come to light before an attribution to any specific location or authority may be conclusively confirmed.
Extremely Fine. Of the greatest rarity - the second known example and the only one in private hands.
From the collection of an antiquarian, Bavaria c. 1960s-90s.
This is the second known example of an extremely rare issue known otherwise only from a single stater in the possession of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. A further stater of the same mint with very similar types was acquired by the British Museum c. 1938-1948, and a corresponding trite was already in the possession of the British Museum at that time. Robinson revised the description previously made of the trite by J. P. Six (NC 1897, pp. 206-7) and repeated by Hill (BMC Cyprus) that described the figure as Herakles, who on the stater can evidently be seen to carry not a club but a labrys, and no trace of a lion-skin can be discerned; moreover the bow he was supposed to hold in his left hand is actually a branch of one of the trees. Robinson observes that "his double-axe points to a pre-Hellenic origin, and the fir-trees suggest high altitudes. He is perhaps a Zeus, like the Carian Labraundos, developed out of an Anatolian sky god, and blasting the fir-trees on the mountain-top with his lightnings. Alternatively he may be a native hero, and the trees may represent a grove. In any case the curious posture of the bull on the new stater makes it tempting to interpret obverse and reverse types in close conjunction as illustrating some local myth."
Robinson remarked also that the bull is left as the only remaining link to the group of coins attributed to Golgoi, and he considered it "a very feeble link indeed". Indeed, the attribution to Golgoi of any coinage at all has been more recently challenged; it does not appear in contemporary sources, and Collobier (1991) concludes there is no evidence for Golgoi as an independent state in this period, citing Hill (1949). The archaeological evidence does point to the existence of a fortified town in C5-C4, but this does not seem reason enough to consider Golgoi even a weak polis; however Golgoi does seem to have been a relatively important cult centre "en dehors des capitales" (see Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis p. 1225).
Michel Amandry (Un statère inédit de Golgoi (?) au Cabinet des Médailles, 1991) published the BnF coin that is struck from the same dies as the present example, but ignores the arguments of Robinson in favour of the original attribution by Six to Golgoi, citing the bas-relief found at Golgoi and presently house at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, which depicts Eurytion, guardian of the cattle of Geryon trying to hide the animals from Herakles with a fir tree.
It remains only to be said therefore that the present type is the excessively rare product of an uncertain mint that will require further find spot evidence to come to light before an attribution to any specific location or authority may be conclusively confirmed.