Heritage World Coin Auctions
NYINC Signature Sale 3037 Sess. 2-4 5 January 2015
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Ancients
CRETE. Lyttus. Ca. 320-280 BC. AR stater (25mm, 10.83 gm, 9h). Eagle flying left /ΛYΤ-TIΩN, boar's head left, mouth open, within dotted square, all within shallow incuse square. Svoronos, Crete, p. 234, 47 variant. Le Rider, Monnaies Crétioses, tf. VII, 16 variant. Rare! Well struck and attractively toned; exceptional metal for this type. Minor graffiti in obverse upper field, otherwise one of the finest specimens extant. NGC Choice XF 5/5 - 3/5, graffito.From The California Collection. Ex Busso Peus Nachfolger 407 (7 November 2012), lot 408. Having no native supplies of silver, Crete relied on imported coinage from other Greek cities, mainly Aegina, with which its cities enjoyed close ties. Lyttus was founded as a colony of Sparta and started striking its own coins in the latter fifth century BC. These early coins were frequently overstruck on mainland Greek coinages, and so ancient Cretan coins frequently suffer from poor strikes and porous metal. Lyttus employed the imagery of an eagle, sacred to Zeus, and a wild boar on its early coins, of which this is an unusually pleasing example, well-struck in sound metal and showing little evidence of an undertype.
Estimate: 7000-10000 USD
CRETE. Lyttus. Ca. 320-280 BC. AR stater (25mm, 10.83 gm, 9h). Eagle flying left /ΛYΤ-TIΩN, boar's head left, mouth open, within dotted square, all within shallow incuse square. Svoronos, Crete, p. 234, 47 variant. Le Rider, Monnaies Crétioses, tf. VII, 16 variant. Rare! Well struck and attractively toned; exceptional metal for this type. Minor graffiti in obverse upper field, otherwise one of the finest specimens extant. NGC Choice XF 5/5 - 3/5, graffito.From The California Collection. Ex Busso Peus Nachfolger 407 (7 November 2012), lot 408. Having no native supplies of silver, Crete relied on imported coinage from other Greek cities, mainly Aegina, with which its cities enjoyed close ties. Lyttus was founded as a colony of Sparta and started striking its own coins in the latter fifth century BC. These early coins were frequently overstruck on mainland Greek coinages, and so ancient Cretan coins frequently suffer from poor strikes and porous metal. Lyttus employed the imagery of an eagle, sacred to Zeus, and a wild boar on its early coins, of which this is an unusually pleasing example, well-struck in sound metal and showing little evidence of an undertype.
Estimate: 7000-10000 USD