Heritage World Coin Auctions
Long Beach Signature Sale 3035 3-5 September 2014
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Ancients
LESBOS. Mytilene. Ca. 454-428/7 BC. EL hecte (10mm, 2.54 gm, 5h). Bearded head of Priapus right, wearing tainia / Head of nymph right, wearing sphendone, within incuse square. HGC 6, 969. Bodenstedt 43. Very rare. Nearly Extremely Fine.Priapus, god of fertility and male virility, is seldom shown in portrait form on Greek coinage. He was the offspring of Aphrodite and either Dionysus or Hermes and is usually shown as a stunted figure with a grotesquely enlarged phallus; since he was also cursed with impotence, his endowment did him little good and he usually seen as a comically suffering character. His cult was well established in Lampsacus in Mysia, which struck rare silver tetradrachms with a portrait strongly resembling the evocative image on this rare electrum hecte.
Estimate: 3000-4000 USD
LESBOS. Mytilene. Ca. 454-428/7 BC. EL hecte (10mm, 2.54 gm, 5h). Bearded head of Priapus right, wearing tainia / Head of nymph right, wearing sphendone, within incuse square. HGC 6, 969. Bodenstedt 43. Very rare. Nearly Extremely Fine.Priapus, god of fertility and male virility, is seldom shown in portrait form on Greek coinage. He was the offspring of Aphrodite and either Dionysus or Hermes and is usually shown as a stunted figure with a grotesquely enlarged phallus; since he was also cursed with impotence, his endowment did him little good and he usually seen as a comically suffering character. His cult was well established in Lampsacus in Mysia, which struck rare silver tetradrachms with a portrait strongly resembling the evocative image on this rare electrum hecte.
Estimate: 3000-4000 USD