Gemini, LLC
Auction X 13 January 2013
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Mysia. Cyzicus. c. 500-460 BC. EL Hecte, 2.68g. Obv: Sphinx consisting of two bodies but one head facing. Below, tunny fish. Rx: Quadripartite incuse square. Von Fritze 128, pl. IV, 14. SNG Paris 280. Spectacular centering on an immense flan. EF.
Compare the owl with two bodies on Athenian diobols, where the doubling indicates the denomination. Here, at Cyzicus, it is just artistic playfulness, as with the picture puzzles on coins of Phocaea (Bodenstedt 55, 62), or the Cilician triple head (Jameson Coll. 1458A), or many Philistian 'grylloi' (see H. Gitler, Transeuphratene 20 (2000), pp. 73-87).
Compare the owl with two bodies on Athenian diobols, where the doubling indicates the denomination. Here, at Cyzicus, it is just artistic playfulness, as with the picture puzzles on coins of Phocaea (Bodenstedt 55, 62), or the Cilician triple head (Jameson Coll. 1458A), or many Philistian 'grylloi' (see H. Gitler, Transeuphratene 20 (2000), pp. 73-87).