Nomos AG
Auction 28 22 May 2023
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THESSALY. Kierion. Circa 350 BC. Stater (Silver, 22 mm, 12.05 g, 12 h). Laureate head of Zeus to right, his hair and beard abundant and curly. Rev. [ΚΙΕΡΙΕΙΩΝ] Youthful Asklepios, wearing an olive wreath, nude to the waist, the end of his robe wrapped around his left arm, seated to left on rocks, holding a long scepter with his left hand and resting his right on his upraised right knee; to left, olive tree entwined by a serpent. BCD 1071 = Photiades Pacha (Hoffmann, 19 May 1890) 51 =Traité IV, 508, pl. CCLXXXIX, 21 = SNG Lewis 574 (same dies). A coin of great rarity, one of five known examples, all struck from the same die pair. With the usual obverse die breaks, as on all the other known examples, and with the usual lightly struck reverse, otherwise, extremely fine.
From a German collection, acquired in the 1990s.
This is one of the great Thessalian rarities. The head of Zeus is clearly modeled on those that appear on the coinage of Philip II and it seems clear that a date of c. 350 for it is fully justified. The figure of Asklepios on the reverse depicts him as a young man, rather than as he usually appears: an older and bearded figure. All the known specimens of this stater, one, as Traité 507, with Asklepios seated on a throne, and five, as this (plus those in the Lewis Collection = Traité 508; CNG MBS 57, 2001, 282; BCD, Nomos 4, 2011, 1071; and Goldberg 69, 2012, 3114), are struck from the same damaged obverse die: no fresh example is known and it is possible that the obverse die broke after only a relatively few coins were struck. The fact that it is, nevertheless, known paired with two different reverses is truly remarkable. This exceptional issue of staters was accompanied by a number of trihemiobols (often termed diobols but they would be very light for that) and obols.
From a German collection, acquired in the 1990s.
This is one of the great Thessalian rarities. The head of Zeus is clearly modeled on those that appear on the coinage of Philip II and it seems clear that a date of c. 350 for it is fully justified. The figure of Asklepios on the reverse depicts him as a young man, rather than as he usually appears: an older and bearded figure. All the known specimens of this stater, one, as Traité 507, with Asklepios seated on a throne, and five, as this (plus those in the Lewis Collection = Traité 508; CNG MBS 57, 2001, 282; BCD, Nomos 4, 2011, 1071; and Goldberg 69, 2012, 3114), are struck from the same damaged obverse die: no fresh example is known and it is possible that the obverse die broke after only a relatively few coins were struck. The fact that it is, nevertheless, known paired with two different reverses is truly remarkable. This exceptional issue of staters was accompanied by a number of trihemiobols (often termed diobols but they would be very light for that) and obols.