Bucephalus Numismatic
Auction 7 30 Sep - 1 Oct 2022
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TROAS. Assos (circa 500-440 BC). AR Drachm.
Obv: Satyr; bearded, curly hair, muscular legs and arms; running right. in archaic style.
Rev: Head of lion, right; roaring and tongue out; within square incuse.
Bucephalus Numismatic Auction 4, Lot 171; BMC 1 = Traité I 691 (Termera in Caria); HPM pl. XVII, 21 (Thraco-Macedonian) = De Luynes 1529 (Lete in Macedon). Extremely RARE.
Condition: Good VF.
Weight: 3.83 g.
Diameter: 14.67 mm.
The reverse type elaborate in style, head of a roaring lion with protruding tongue facing right and in an incuse square, is stylistically quite similar to that shown in drachms with griffin of Assos. These very rare drachms without the ethnic should be attributed to Assos. Also, the cultic connections of the satyr in Assos is another evidence. A nymphe head is depicted in Assos' obols (with and without the Assian ethnic) dated to 430-410 BC (see for example Gorny&Mosch, Au 212, lot 1747). The nymph and satyr types may both be related to a local Aegean cult, in Assos possibly connected to a spring such as the one monumentalized in Roman times (and still pouring water) that can be seen by the sea close to the harbour (for the nymph type, L. Lazzarini, Assus Troadis: the beginning of coinage and its later silver emissions in the V and IV century BC, p. 37).
Obv: Satyr; bearded, curly hair, muscular legs and arms; running right. in archaic style.
Rev: Head of lion, right; roaring and tongue out; within square incuse.
Bucephalus Numismatic Auction 4, Lot 171; BMC 1 = Traité I 691 (Termera in Caria); HPM pl. XVII, 21 (Thraco-Macedonian) = De Luynes 1529 (Lete in Macedon). Extremely RARE.
Condition: Good VF.
Weight: 3.83 g.
Diameter: 14.67 mm.
The reverse type elaborate in style, head of a roaring lion with protruding tongue facing right and in an incuse square, is stylistically quite similar to that shown in drachms with griffin of Assos. These very rare drachms without the ethnic should be attributed to Assos. Also, the cultic connections of the satyr in Assos is another evidence. A nymphe head is depicted in Assos' obols (with and without the Assian ethnic) dated to 430-410 BC (see for example Gorny&Mosch, Au 212, lot 1747). The nymph and satyr types may both be related to a local Aegean cult, in Assos possibly connected to a spring such as the one monumentalized in Roman times (and still pouring water) that can be seen by the sea close to the harbour (for the nymph type, L. Lazzarini, Assus Troadis: the beginning of coinage and its later silver emissions in the V and IV century BC, p. 37).