Watch List notes:

DYNASTS OF LYCIA. Zagaba. Time of Wekhssere II, circa 400-380 BC. Stater (Silver, 26.5 mm, 9.92 g, 6 h). Lion's scalp facing. Rev. zakhabaha (in Lycian) Head of Athena facing three-quarters l., wearing a triple-crested Attic helmet, with a decorated visor and, on the helmet bowl, the tiny Lycian letters wah-ñ, and a pendant necklace with a gorgoneion at the center; in the field to right, monogram made of the Lycian letters u, kh and s. Cf. Müseler, SMB 287, p. 54, fig. 11 = Olçay-Mørkholm 12 (with a branch in lieu of a monogram in the reverse field). Very rare. An impressive and powerful piece. Obverse double-struck and with some minor flatness on the reverse, otherwise, extremely fine.
Ex Leu Numismatics 72, 12 May 1998, 288.

The curious Lycian inscription wahñ on Athena's helmet, which appears in the same place as the signature ΕΥ-Κ-ΛΕΙΔ/Α does on the reverse of the Syracusan tetradrachm that served as the prototype for this coin (above, lot 45 - and see Müseler pp. 54-55), suggests that it could be either an engraver's signature or that of some senior official = wahñteze = "The Man from Phellos". This is certainly more likely, given the hidden way the letters appear, than the possibility that the two legends on the reverse represent an alliance between Zagaba and Phellos. Interestingly enough, when this coin first appeared in 1998, its distinguished cataloguer, S. Hurter, only noticed a single alpha on the helmet bowl, which she surmised was merely a remnant of the Eukleidas signature on the Syracusan original!