Watch List notes:

LYDIA, Sardes. Early-mid 2nd century BC. Æ (21mm, 7.07 g, 12h). Pergamene types. Helmeted head of Athena right / Trophy; civic monogram of Sardes to lower right. Winterthur 2640 (Pergamon). Dark green patina. VF. Very rare with this monogram; important for the chronology and understanding of the Athenas Nikophoroi series.

The Athenas Nikophoroi series is traditionally all placed under the coinage of Pergamon, but it appears that some, if not all, of the monograms of this coinage are actually mintmarks, suggesting that these issues were struck at the various cities under the control of the Kingdom of Pergamon, like the cistophoroi. For instance, the ubiquitous civic monogram of the city of Pergamon, present on its cistophoroi, is present on SNG BN 1880–4, while SNG Ashmolean 841 bears a common civic monogram of Parion found on Hellenistic issues of the city in the 3rd century BC. The monogram on the present coin is a match with a that found on a number of the early (and contemporary) cistophoroi struck at Sardes (cf. Kleiner & Noe Series 1–6, 8, and 11), which has been accepted as the civic monogram of that city.