Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXII 7-8 Oct 2021
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Troas, Ilion. Memnon of Rhodes AR Reduced Drachm(?). Chian standard, circa 350-340 BC. Head of Athena to right, wearing crested Attic helmet decorated with palmette / Archaic xoanon of Athena Ilias standing to left on base, with polos on head, holding filleted spear pointing downwards and distaff, rose to lower left; all within [shallow circular incuse]. A. Ellis-Evans, "Memnon and Mentor of Rhodes in the Troad" in NC 178 (2018), pl. 6, 6 (O1/-); Jameson 2229 (same obv. die); CNG 99, lot 195 (same obv. die); Hirsch 258, lot 2208 (same obv. die); Gorny & Mosch 108, lot 1234. 2.78g, 15mm, 12h.
Near Extremely Fine; exceptional metal for the issue. Extremely Rare, one of eight known examples (of the other seven, five are in private hands, one in the ANS [no. 1951.191.20 - the Jameson piece] and one in Berlin [18262099]); the present specimen seemingly struck from a previously unrecorded reverse die.
From the inventory of a German dealer.
Known from very few drachms and hemidrachms, the attribution of this issue is perplexing; originally thought to be from Assos on the basis of the similarity of the types to a single tetradrachm in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Traité II 2302, pl. CLXIII, 28), parallels can also be drawn with the early bronzes of Ilium.
In his 2018 paper in the Numismatic Chronicle ("Memnon and Mentor of Rhodes in the Troad", NC 178), Aneurin Ellis-Evans makes a convincing case for these anepigraphic issues to be the first silver coins issued at Ilion, a hypothesis first posited by Lorenzo Lazzarini in 1984 ("La prima monetazione della Panegiria a Ilio", RIN 85). Ellis-Evans dates them to the 350s BC under the auspices of Memnon of Rhodes, showing how these issues become the precursor to the creation of the Koinon of Athena Ilias.
Near Extremely Fine; exceptional metal for the issue. Extremely Rare, one of eight known examples (of the other seven, five are in private hands, one in the ANS [no. 1951.191.20 - the Jameson piece] and one in Berlin [18262099]); the present specimen seemingly struck from a previously unrecorded reverse die.
From the inventory of a German dealer.
Known from very few drachms and hemidrachms, the attribution of this issue is perplexing; originally thought to be from Assos on the basis of the similarity of the types to a single tetradrachm in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Traité II 2302, pl. CLXIII, 28), parallels can also be drawn with the early bronzes of Ilium.
In his 2018 paper in the Numismatic Chronicle ("Memnon and Mentor of Rhodes in the Troad", NC 178), Aneurin Ellis-Evans makes a convincing case for these anepigraphic issues to be the first silver coins issued at Ilion, a hypothesis first posited by Lorenzo Lazzarini in 1984 ("La prima monetazione della Panegiria a Ilio", RIN 85). Ellis-Evans dates them to the 350s BC under the auspices of Memnon of Rhodes, showing how these issues become the precursor to the creation of the Koinon of Athena Ilias.