Savoca Coins
Online Auction 124 | Silver 23 Jan 2022
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Lesbos. Mytilene. Pseudo-autonomous issue. Time of the Antonines AD 138-192.
Bronze Æ
mm, g
NAV-CIKA, draped bust of Nausikaa right, her hair elaborately waved in several loops around head / ΜΥ-ΤΙ, chelys with three strings.
Dark green-brown patina. Very fine.
RPC IV.2 online 1788.10 (this coin); SNG Copenhagen 406; BMC Troas etc. 168.
According to BMC (p. lxxv) Nausikaa, who appears on coins of Mytilene of the time of Faustina I, was doubtless some Mytilenean lady and not the Nausikaa of Homer.
However, on another coin of the same period Nausikaa is named as ΗΡΩΙΔΑ and that makes us think of a heroine Nausikaa, connected with the lesbian poet Sappho, as indicated here by her chelys on the reverse.
Bronze Æ
mm, g
NAV-CIKA, draped bust of Nausikaa right, her hair elaborately waved in several loops around head / ΜΥ-ΤΙ, chelys with three strings.
Dark green-brown patina. Very fine.
RPC IV.2 online 1788.10 (this coin); SNG Copenhagen 406; BMC Troas etc. 168.
According to BMC (p. lxxv) Nausikaa, who appears on coins of Mytilene of the time of Faustina I, was doubtless some Mytilenean lady and not the Nausikaa of Homer.
However, on another coin of the same period Nausikaa is named as ΗΡΩΙΔΑ and that makes us think of a heroine Nausikaa, connected with the lesbian poet Sappho, as indicated here by her chelys on the reverse.