Nomos AG
Auction 20 10 Jul 2020
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Cilicia or Cyprus
Cilician Area. Uncertain mint. Mid 5th century BC. Tetartemorion (Silver, 6 mm, 0.21 g, 7 h). Beardless head right (Athena?, a Hero?) with a lozenge-shaped archaic eye, wearing an undecorated Attic helmet with crest. Rev. Raven standing to right within a pelleted rectangular border; the whole within a shallow incuse square. Apparently unpublished, but for another example, see Naumann 71, 2018, 124. An intriguing and very-well engraved coin! Very clear and with both a fine head on the obverse and a very serious-looking bird. Extremely fine.
Helmeted, beardless heads that appear on Greek coinage tend to be identified as Athena, and it would be natural to assume just that for this coin. However, the bird on the reverse of this coin is not Athena's owl, but a rather cross-looking raven (or a hawk? – in any case it is not an eagle), so the identification of the head on the obverse as being the goddess's is somewhat problematical. It certainly could be a local Hero of some sort. It is often the case that very small coins provide very big problems.
Cilician Area. Uncertain mint. Mid 5th century BC. Tetartemorion (Silver, 6 mm, 0.21 g, 7 h). Beardless head right (Athena?, a Hero?) with a lozenge-shaped archaic eye, wearing an undecorated Attic helmet with crest. Rev. Raven standing to right within a pelleted rectangular border; the whole within a shallow incuse square. Apparently unpublished, but for another example, see Naumann 71, 2018, 124. An intriguing and very-well engraved coin! Very clear and with both a fine head on the obverse and a very serious-looking bird. Extremely fine.
Helmeted, beardless heads that appear on Greek coinage tend to be identified as Athena, and it would be natural to assume just that for this coin. However, the bird on the reverse of this coin is not Athena's owl, but a rather cross-looking raven (or a hawk? – in any case it is not an eagle), so the identification of the head on the obverse as being the goddess's is somewhat problematical. It certainly could be a local Hero of some sort. It is often the case that very small coins provide very big problems.