Nomos AG
Auction 27 22 May 2023
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
MYSIA. Kyzikos. Circa 550-500 BC. Hekte (Electrum, 11 mm, 2.67 g). Winged mythological creature (with the body of a man and the head of a lion-like animal with a boar's crest and a tall, griffin-like ear) in the running-kneeling posture to left, his head to right, holding, in his left hand, a tunny by the tail; in the field to left, countermark; in the field to right, punch mark; on the edge, three countermarks. Rev. Quadripartite incuse square. SNG Paris 272. SNG von Aulock 1199. Von Fritze I, 123. A surprisingly nice coin with a fascinating obverse type. With a dig and four countermarks, otherwise, extremely fine.
Ex Giessener Münzhandlung 96, 7 June 1999, 155.
Some viewers may find this a surprising coin to be here; after all, the countermark and dig on the obverse would usually be seen as very annoying defects. When this cataloguer bought this coin for RE in 1999, he told him that the coin was definitely worth buying because the marks on the obverse, somehow framed the obverse type, making it more emphatic than it would otherwise be! They really do! Obviously it is not a 'perfect' coin, but it is an art object in itself. This must have been true for the ancient users as well: the two marks on the obverse are very carefully placed not to disturb the type, and that is also true of the three marks on the edge.
As for the creature on the obverse, who is he? Von Fritze suggested it was Phobos, the son of Ares and Aphrodite who was the god of fear and panic. He supposedly had a lion-like head (not a wolf's as suggested for lot 157 in Nomos 22).
Ex Giessener Münzhandlung 96, 7 June 1999, 155.
Some viewers may find this a surprising coin to be here; after all, the countermark and dig on the obverse would usually be seen as very annoying defects. When this cataloguer bought this coin for RE in 1999, he told him that the coin was definitely worth buying because the marks on the obverse, somehow framed the obverse type, making it more emphatic than it would otherwise be! They really do! Obviously it is not a 'perfect' coin, but it is an art object in itself. This must have been true for the ancient users as well: the two marks on the obverse are very carefully placed not to disturb the type, and that is also true of the three marks on the edge.
As for the creature on the obverse, who is he? Von Fritze suggested it was Phobos, the son of Ares and Aphrodite who was the god of fear and panic. He supposedly had a lion-like head (not a wolf's as suggested for lot 157 in Nomos 22).