Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 72 25 Jun 2020
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Western Asia Minor, uncertain mint AR 1/96 Stater. Late 6th - early 5th centuries BC. Pellet within serrated linear circle / Head of griffin(?) or man-faced bull to left, within round incuse. For a similar issue and denomination cf. Numismatik Naumann Auction 44, 2016, lot 427 (incorrectly defined as a tetartemorion, with reverse of bull's head to left and attributed to an uncertain mint in Karia). 0.10g, 5mm.
Extremely Fine. Apparently unique and unpublished.
From the inventory of a UK dealer.
The denomination of this numismatic novelty is very close to 1/96th (i.e. 0.127g) of a silver Aeginetic stater (ideally of 12.2g), which may also be correctly but pedantically called a hemitetartemorion or 1/8 Obol, a weight standard typically found in the coinage of the islands of the southern Aegean, including that of Teos off Ionia, which also used as its badge the head of a griffin in the late archaic style, cf. J. Balcer, 'The early silver coinage of Teos', SNR 47, 1968, 81-3 (all identified as hemitartemoria [sic]). There is also a distinct similarity to the uncertain Ionian 'rosette' hemitartemoria: ex Baldwin et. al. Auctions: The New York Sale 17, 2008, lot 84 (0.11g), Sale 25, 2011, lot 67 (0.10g) and Roma Numismatics E-Sale 7, lot 582 (all identified as tetartemoria of Western Asia Minor).
For other attributions depicting this unusual obverse type cf.: Naville auction 5, 19 June 1923, lot 1900 and Proschowsky collection, Rasmussen 245, 10 March 1970, lot 629 (both wrongly identified as from the mint of Thebes = Traité 2.1 and BMC 14) and BCD collection, Lokris-Phokis, NAC sale 55, 8 October 2010, lot 369 (described as a tetartemorion and attributed to Delphi).
Extremely Fine. Apparently unique and unpublished.
From the inventory of a UK dealer.
The denomination of this numismatic novelty is very close to 1/96th (i.e. 0.127g) of a silver Aeginetic stater (ideally of 12.2g), which may also be correctly but pedantically called a hemitetartemorion or 1/8 Obol, a weight standard typically found in the coinage of the islands of the southern Aegean, including that of Teos off Ionia, which also used as its badge the head of a griffin in the late archaic style, cf. J. Balcer, 'The early silver coinage of Teos', SNR 47, 1968, 81-3 (all identified as hemitartemoria [sic]). There is also a distinct similarity to the uncertain Ionian 'rosette' hemitartemoria: ex Baldwin et. al. Auctions: The New York Sale 17, 2008, lot 84 (0.11g), Sale 25, 2011, lot 67 (0.10g) and Roma Numismatics E-Sale 7, lot 582 (all identified as tetartemoria of Western Asia Minor).
For other attributions depicting this unusual obverse type cf.: Naville auction 5, 19 June 1923, lot 1900 and Proschowsky collection, Rasmussen 245, 10 March 1970, lot 629 (both wrongly identified as from the mint of Thebes = Traité 2.1 and BMC 14) and BCD collection, Lokris-Phokis, NAC sale 55, 8 October 2010, lot 369 (described as a tetartemorion and attributed to Delphi).