Watch List notes:

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

MENDE, Tetradrachm c. 430, Attic standard, AR 17.31 g.

Obv. Silenus, naked to waist, reclining left, with one leg tuc- ked up, on a donkey right, holding cantharus in right hand and leaning on the left arm; in right field, crow perched right on vine-stock; all on ground line; border of dots.
Rev. ΜΕΝ/ℵ?Α/Ι/ΟΝ around the border of an incuse square; in centre, raised square bearing vine-stock with four bunches of grapes.
Literature
Traité II/4, 977, pl. CCCXV, 6 BMC Macedonia -
SNG ANS 333 (this reverse die) SNG Lockett 1345 (this obverse die)
S. P. Noe, "The Mende (Kaliandra) Hoard", NNM 27, 1926, 50
Jameson 1961 (these dies)
M.-M. Bendenoun, Coins of the Ancient World, A portrait of the JDL Collection, Tradart, Genève, 2009, 15 (this coin)
Condition
Very rare and in exceptional condition for the issue. A won- derful representation, work of a very skilled master-engraver, struck on a full flan. Lightly toned and extremely fine.

Provenance
Tradart Genève SA, Genève 1994, lot 43.
The city of Mende was renowned for the quality of its wine. We might presume that it struck large silver coins for use in internatio- nal trade as it shipped off its prized wine and sought to acquire everything from basic necessities to luxury goods. The city's ear- liest tetradrachms, struck from about 520 to 470 B.C., show a standing ass, often with a crow perched upon it, standing alertly or pecking at the animal's hide. The crow is shown on numerous later issues of the 5th Century, including the present coin, on which it is perched upon a bush near the ass's front hooves.
The meaning of the crow is not obvious, and its use on the ear- liest tetradrachms may have originated from a plain observation in which these birds were seen removing parasites from larger animals. In this regard, Sydney Noe observed: "...in Greece... on one occasion I saw no less than three of these birds perched on the back of a goat, apparently to the great satisfaction of that animal, which took the greatest care not to make a movement which would disturb the visitors."
The appearance of Dionysus on these tetradrachms would have been almost expected from a wine-exporting city. Indeed, the chosen designs of the main coinage at Mende meld the natural and the spiritual as they pair a scene of Dionysus reclining on the back of an ass as he holds aloft a cup of wine with the image of a vine laden with clusters of grapes, all surrounded by the city's name. Dionysus is said to have taught the Greeks how to cultivate grapes, and is credited, himself, with the invention of wine.
Much was learned about the breadth of Mende's coinage when a hoard of about 400 of that city's tetradrachms was unearthed in 1913, apparently at Kaliandra, the site of ancient Mende.
Noe reported that prior to this landmark find (IGCH 358) scar- cely more than fifty examples were known.