Watch List notes:

JDL Collection Part II: Geek Coins
NORTHERN GREECE. MACEDONIA.

ACANTHUS, Tetradrachm c. 525–470, Attic standard, AR 16.93 g.

Obv. Lion attacking bull on a ground line of dots,
lion left on bull right, clawing his flanks and biting into his hindquarter; bull, with head erected, kneeling; in exergue, Acanthus flower; border of dots.
Rev. Quadripartite incuse square.
Literature
Traité II/4 - cf. 1056, pl. CCCXVIII, 22 (bull's head left) BMC Macedonia -
SNG ANS 2
SNG Ashmolean 2195 (these dies)
P. Tselekas, The Coinage of Acanthus, unpublished DPhil, Oxford, 1996, 30f
Desneux 2d
M.-M. Bendenoun, Coins of the Ancient World, A portrait of the JDL Collection, Tradart, Genève, 2009, 13 (this coin)
Condition
Rare. An exceptional specimen of this very attractive and intriguing issue. Struck in high relief on a very large flan. Lovely old cabinet tone and extremely fine.

Provenance
The Numismatic Auction Ltd I, New York 1982, lot 51.
P. & P. Santamaria, Rome, 24 January 1950, lot 133. From the Ginori – Gariazzo collection.
The Archaic-period tetradrachms of Acanthus provide insight into what must have been an extraordinarily rich culture in one of the most successful Greek colonies in the Chalcidice. On these earliest types, collectively struck c.530/510 to c.480/465 B.C., the art-style is Orientalizing, betraying a
strong influence from the East. Beyond the aesthetics of the art, we may also point to the obverse design as possible further evidence of Eastern influence. The lion attacking a bull was a motif very likely derived from a Near Eastern tradition in which these creatures, laden with royal and astrological symbolism, confronted one another in combat.
Why this design was chosen is nowhere recorded, though even if it was the result of Eastern influence, we may note that
these two creatures would also have been familiar in Macedon. Herodotus records that herds of bulls with long horns roamed wild in the region, and that lions were common; indeed, he describes how lions had attacked Xerxes' camels on their trek not far from Acanthus. Accounts like these are delightful as they remind us of the many dangers (beyond those of human origin) faced by these intrepid Greek colonists.
After the earliest phase of production at Acanthus, tetra- drachms continued to be struck for about another century, until c.380/350 B.C. A stylistic evolution can be observed over this long period, both on the obverse and the reverse. The engra- ving of the obverse dies is modernised greatly after c.480/465 B.C., with the vigorous stylisation giving way to highly realistic and refined representations of the lion and the bull. The reverse also was rehabilitated. Though it had evolved considerably even in the early period, thereafter it was transformed from a nearly featureless incuse punch to a developed reverse type that included the city's ethnic arranged in a sunken area along the border of the square. On these issues the centre of the reverse was occupied by an increasingly elaborate square that was quartered as if to emulate – in relief – the incuse punch of the Archaic issues.