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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 

Distinctive Classical Portrait Style

346, Lot: 175. Estimate $1000.
Sold for $1800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

DYNASTS of LYCIA. Mithrapata. Circa 390-370 BC. AR Stater (25mm, 9.53 g, 2h). Facing lion scalp / Head of Mithrapata left; triskeles to lower right; all within incuse square. Mildenberg, Mithrapata 11 (O6/R8); Falghera 193; SNG Copenhagen Supp. 473 (same obv. die). Good VF, lightly toned, area of flat strike, a few light scratches.


The portraits on coins in the later Lycian series are among the finest of the Classical period. Among the earliest to attempt depictions of their rulers on coinage, the Lycians' first portraits in the later 5th century BC were innovative, but static, idealized forms lacking individual characterization. Over the next half-century, however, the style progressed significantly toward realism, culminating in the issues of the dynasts Mithrapata and Perikles in the early-mid 4th century BC. The coins of Mithrapata came first, depicting on their reverse the profile portrait of a man with distinctive elderly features. Through the relative chronology established in L. Mildenberg's die study, one can even see the portrait become more aged as time progressed, reflecting the realism that had been captured in these issues.