Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXI 24-25 Mar 2021
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Ionia, Erythrai EL Hemistater. Milesian standard. Circa 600-550 BC. Raised boss device (solar symbol) decorated with a raised lotus flower seen from above, consisting of an outer ring of eight pointed petals and an inner ring of eight rounded petals around a central pellet / Quadripartite incuse punch. Unpublished, but cf. BMC Ionia p. 2, 2, pl. I, 2 (uncertain mint) & p. 116, 1, pl. III, 12 (Erythrae?); cf. Traité I, pl. 3, 5; cf. Rosen 250; cf. Jameson 2292; cf. Svoronos pl. 16, 19-20. 7.11g, 14mm.
Near Mint State; minor die break on obv. Unpublished, and possibly unique.
From the inventory of a UK dealer.
The attribution of early electrum coins is notoriously difficult owing of course to the lack of inscriptions or defining attributes. In the present case however the likelihood of Erythrai being the issuing authority is quite high. The continuity of floral motifs at that mint, together with the fortunately recorded find-spot of the Rosen example (the Erythrai-Çeşme hoard of 1923 - IGCH 1184) make for a convincing argument.
The lotus flower that appears upon the central boss is an element common to several large-denomination electrum types from uncertain mints attributed to Lydia or Ionia, all struck on the Milesian standard: the recumbent lion type (Rosen 245; NAC 72, 16 May 2013, 369), bull kneeling with its head reverted (Rosen 148), and two rampant lions upright on their hind legs with heads reverted and paws extended (Rosen 149). On all of these coins the lotus flower may initially appear incidental, though its commonality to all types indicates otherwise – it is evidently to be seen as the key element of the type that links all of these disparate designs.
The lotus flower appears only sporadically in Greek mythology, though it had a deep rooted use in Egyptian art and legend, where it was taken as a symbolic representation of the sun on account of its physical behaviour: it closes at night time and descends into the water, rising and flowering again at dawn. In Egyptian creation myth, the lotus was the first thing to spontaneously form from chaos, and it was from the lotus that the sun itself was born on the first day.
The eastern coastal areas of the Mediterranean in the sixth century BC had been for a long time familiar with Egyptian religious beliefs that spread as a consequence of trade and population dispersal; the lotus' insinuation in its Egyptian meaning into Greek culture is evident in the lotus-tipped sceptre carried by Zeus on the coinages of Karia, Mysia and Kilikia (among others), being a legacy of the assimilation of an attribute of the major Egyptian solar deity Ra with the principal god of the Greek pantheon Zeus. The lotus' appearance here as a polyvalent symbol can best be understood then in the context of assimilated Egyptian beliefs, representing at once both a solar and divine aspect, as well as a clear allusion to the minting city's location.
The prevalence of other solar symbols on the aforementioned types, in particular the horse (considered a solar symbol, not only throughout the East, but also among Celtic and Germanic tribes), the lion (ever associated with the sun and believed to be able to gaze at the sun without blinking) and of course sunbursts, being well understood to signify what we now refer to as Anatolia, which comes from the Greek Aνατολή (Anatolē) meaning the 'East' or more literally 'sunrise', used to refer to the Ionian colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor. Such preponderance of solar symbology is indeed only fitting for this metal, and is in fact an overt statement of the coin's composition: ἤλεκτρον, the Greek word for electrum, is derived from the word ἠλέκτωρ (ēlektōr) - 'shining sun'.
Near Mint State; minor die break on obv. Unpublished, and possibly unique.
From the inventory of a UK dealer.
The attribution of early electrum coins is notoriously difficult owing of course to the lack of inscriptions or defining attributes. In the present case however the likelihood of Erythrai being the issuing authority is quite high. The continuity of floral motifs at that mint, together with the fortunately recorded find-spot of the Rosen example (the Erythrai-Çeşme hoard of 1923 - IGCH 1184) make for a convincing argument.
The lotus flower that appears upon the central boss is an element common to several large-denomination electrum types from uncertain mints attributed to Lydia or Ionia, all struck on the Milesian standard: the recumbent lion type (Rosen 245; NAC 72, 16 May 2013, 369), bull kneeling with its head reverted (Rosen 148), and two rampant lions upright on their hind legs with heads reverted and paws extended (Rosen 149). On all of these coins the lotus flower may initially appear incidental, though its commonality to all types indicates otherwise – it is evidently to be seen as the key element of the type that links all of these disparate designs.
The lotus flower appears only sporadically in Greek mythology, though it had a deep rooted use in Egyptian art and legend, where it was taken as a symbolic representation of the sun on account of its physical behaviour: it closes at night time and descends into the water, rising and flowering again at dawn. In Egyptian creation myth, the lotus was the first thing to spontaneously form from chaos, and it was from the lotus that the sun itself was born on the first day.
The eastern coastal areas of the Mediterranean in the sixth century BC had been for a long time familiar with Egyptian religious beliefs that spread as a consequence of trade and population dispersal; the lotus' insinuation in its Egyptian meaning into Greek culture is evident in the lotus-tipped sceptre carried by Zeus on the coinages of Karia, Mysia and Kilikia (among others), being a legacy of the assimilation of an attribute of the major Egyptian solar deity Ra with the principal god of the Greek pantheon Zeus. The lotus' appearance here as a polyvalent symbol can best be understood then in the context of assimilated Egyptian beliefs, representing at once both a solar and divine aspect, as well as a clear allusion to the minting city's location.
The prevalence of other solar symbols on the aforementioned types, in particular the horse (considered a solar symbol, not only throughout the East, but also among Celtic and Germanic tribes), the lion (ever associated with the sun and believed to be able to gaze at the sun without blinking) and of course sunbursts, being well understood to signify what we now refer to as Anatolia, which comes from the Greek Aνατολή (Anatolē) meaning the 'East' or more literally 'sunrise', used to refer to the Ionian colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor. Such preponderance of solar symbology is indeed only fitting for this metal, and is in fact an overt statement of the coin's composition: ἤλεκτρον, the Greek word for electrum, is derived from the word ἠλέκτωρ (ēlektōr) - 'shining sun'.