Uncertain mint in Ionia. c. 550-530 BC. EL Hecte, 2.29g. Obv: Horsefly. Rx: Incuse square with rough surface. Traite? II 2, 1870, pl. 152, 16 (same obverse die, but struck in silver, attributed to Ephesus), cf. Hauck & Aufhauser 19 (2006), lot 108, and Tkalec (29 Feb. 2000), lot 118). The hemihecte Triton VIII (2005), lot 407 could be part of the same issue. This is a unique and wonderful hecte. Nothing like it has ever been seen and it is artistically spectacular. EF.
Ex Gemini IX, 8 January 2012, lot 140 (reconsigned by consignor as the funds were not settled).
A very surprising coin, first because its obverse die seems to show not a bee, as one might initially think, but a horsefly, and second because the same obverse die was also used to strike a silver coin, the reverse there showing a rosette within an incuse square. Where exactly these coins were struck cannot yet be established.