Heritage World Coin Auctions
NYINC Signature Sale 3037 Sess. 2-4 5 January 2015
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Ancients
MACEDON. Acanthus. Ca. 470-450 BC. AR tetradrachm (30mm, 16.95 gm). Lioness right, head facing, attacking bull collapsing left, head reverted and grounded; above, pellet-in-annulet; in exergue, floral motif; beaded border and exergual line / Quadripartite incuse square. Desneux Type G; cf. 48-68 (bull's head in slightly different position). Cf. SNG ANS 10 (same). A truly spectacular example, deeply struck and perfectly centered on an immense, round flan, with a full border of dots. One of the finest examples extant. NGC Choice AU★ 5/5 - 5/5, Fine Style. From The California Collection. Ex Hunter Collection (Goldberg 72, 5 February 2013), lot 4039. Acanthus was located on easternmost "finger" of the Chalcidice and was founded in the seventh century BC. With a silver mine in its immediate vicinity, Acanthus became a prolific mint and its coinage circulated widely in northern and mainland Greece. Of the Archaic Greek coinages, the imagery of Acanthus is among the most striking and influential, depicting a lion attacking a bull, a motif soon adopted by several other cities. Lions prowled the hinterlands of Thrace and Macedon in this era and Herodotus recounts an episode when the baggage train of the Persian King Xerxes's army was set upon by lions during its march from Asia Minor into Greece proper. This particular rendering of the life-and-death struggle is particularly powerful, with its yin-yang-like juxtapositioning of the two animals deeply impressed into a round, medallic flan, and thus displaying the full vigor of Archaic Greek art.
Estimate: 35000-45000 USD
MACEDON. Acanthus. Ca. 470-450 BC. AR tetradrachm (30mm, 16.95 gm). Lioness right, head facing, attacking bull collapsing left, head reverted and grounded; above, pellet-in-annulet; in exergue, floral motif; beaded border and exergual line / Quadripartite incuse square. Desneux Type G; cf. 48-68 (bull's head in slightly different position). Cf. SNG ANS 10 (same). A truly spectacular example, deeply struck and perfectly centered on an immense, round flan, with a full border of dots. One of the finest examples extant. NGC Choice AU★ 5/5 - 5/5, Fine Style. From The California Collection. Ex Hunter Collection (Goldberg 72, 5 February 2013), lot 4039. Acanthus was located on easternmost "finger" of the Chalcidice and was founded in the seventh century BC. With a silver mine in its immediate vicinity, Acanthus became a prolific mint and its coinage circulated widely in northern and mainland Greece. Of the Archaic Greek coinages, the imagery of Acanthus is among the most striking and influential, depicting a lion attacking a bull, a motif soon adopted by several other cities. Lions prowled the hinterlands of Thrace and Macedon in this era and Herodotus recounts an episode when the baggage train of the Persian King Xerxes's army was set upon by lions during its march from Asia Minor into Greece proper. This particular rendering of the life-and-death struggle is particularly powerful, with its yin-yang-like juxtapositioning of the two animals deeply impressed into a round, medallic flan, and thus displaying the full vigor of Archaic Greek art.
Estimate: 35000-45000 USD