Earliest Coinage at Kyrene?

400, Lot: 354. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KYRENAICA, Kyrene. Circa 500-480 BC. AR Tetradrachm (19.5mm, 15.61 g). Large silphion fruit surmounted by gazelle recumbent right / Rough incuse punch. Buttrey, Coins, Period I, Group 1B, 58 (same obv. die); SNG Copenhagen –; BMC –. Fine, toned, double struck on reverse. Extremely rare, possibly the fifth known.

Four examples of this issue were found in the excavations at Cyrene (Buttrey). No others have been published in collections or offered at public sale, though one may have been in the 1860 Mit Rahineh Hoard (published by M. Price in CH III, pp. 6–8), though the animal on that coin is not completely visible. Although these are supposed to have been struck on the Attic standard, all of the examples are light, falling between 15.61 and 16.39 grams. As noted by Buttrey, his arrangement of the early, plain incuse issues was arbitrary; thus, it is possible that this issue was the first coinage struck at Kyrene, on a different standard before the decision was made to use the Attic, which persisted at the mint for quite some time thereafter.