Numismatica Ars Classica
Auction 124 23 Jun 2021
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Bithynia, Calchedon.
Drachm circa 480-460, AR 4.49 g. Diademed and bearded head l. (Calchas?). Rev. Four-spoked wheel within shallow round incuse. SNG von Aulock 6980.
Of the highest rarity, apparently only the second specimen known. A portrait of enchanting
beauty, work of a very skilled master engraver, struck in high relief. Lovely old cabinet
tone, minor and unobtrusive areas of oxidation on reverse, otherwise extremely fine
Ex M&M 41, 1970, 123 (illustrated on the front cover of the catalogue) and Morton & Eden 51, 2011, 130 sales.
The wonderfully archaic bearded head on the obverse of this drachm is suspected of representing the mythological seer Kalchas as a punning allusion to the name of the city. There is in fact no extant tradition that Kalchas was somehow connected with the city, which was founded as a Megarian colony in 685 BC. However, the Kalchedonians do seem to have enjoyed punning civic associations. They are reported to have preserved in their territory an altar at which Jason and the Argonauts were said to have sacrificed upon their return from Kolchis-a distant city whose name was only two vowels away from Kalchas and easily connected with Kalchedon by the loose etymological standards of the ancient Greeks. The Argive Kalchas was considered to be the greatest Greek seer at the time of the Trojan War. He (in)famously advised Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenaia in order to obtain favorable winds for the Greek fleet to sail against Troy. Later, in the ninth year of the Trojan War, he advised that Chryseis, a Trojan woman captured by Achilles, had to be returned to her father in order to end a plague afflicting the Greeks. Her return sparked the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon that provides the major theme of Homer's Iliad. After the Trojan War, Kalchas is said to have foreseen the disasters inflicted by the gods on the Greeks as they made their way home and therefore decided to remain safely in Asia Minor. His death is variously reported. According to one account he died of shame at Kolophon after he was defeated in a fortune-telling contest with Mopsos. Others held that he died of laughter after he thought that another seer had wrongly foretold his death. One wonders if he also would have laughed at the punning use of his image on Kalchedonian drachms.
Drachm circa 480-460, AR 4.49 g. Diademed and bearded head l. (Calchas?). Rev. Four-spoked wheel within shallow round incuse. SNG von Aulock 6980.
Of the highest rarity, apparently only the second specimen known. A portrait of enchanting
beauty, work of a very skilled master engraver, struck in high relief. Lovely old cabinet
tone, minor and unobtrusive areas of oxidation on reverse, otherwise extremely fine
Ex M&M 41, 1970, 123 (illustrated on the front cover of the catalogue) and Morton & Eden 51, 2011, 130 sales.
The wonderfully archaic bearded head on the obverse of this drachm is suspected of representing the mythological seer Kalchas as a punning allusion to the name of the city. There is in fact no extant tradition that Kalchas was somehow connected with the city, which was founded as a Megarian colony in 685 BC. However, the Kalchedonians do seem to have enjoyed punning civic associations. They are reported to have preserved in their territory an altar at which Jason and the Argonauts were said to have sacrificed upon their return from Kolchis-a distant city whose name was only two vowels away from Kalchas and easily connected with Kalchedon by the loose etymological standards of the ancient Greeks. The Argive Kalchas was considered to be the greatest Greek seer at the time of the Trojan War. He (in)famously advised Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenaia in order to obtain favorable winds for the Greek fleet to sail against Troy. Later, in the ninth year of the Trojan War, he advised that Chryseis, a Trojan woman captured by Achilles, had to be returned to her father in order to end a plague afflicting the Greeks. Her return sparked the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon that provides the major theme of Homer's Iliad. After the Trojan War, Kalchas is said to have foreseen the disasters inflicted by the gods on the Greeks as they made their way home and therefore decided to remain safely in Asia Minor. His death is variously reported. According to one account he died of shame at Kolophon after he was defeated in a fortune-telling contest with Mopsos. Others held that he died of laughter after he thought that another seer had wrongly foretold his death. One wonders if he also would have laughed at the punning use of his image on Kalchedonian drachms.