408, Lot: 147. Estimate $100. Sold for $130. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MYSIA, Parion. 4th century BC. AR Hemidrachm (13mm, 2.39 g, 1h). Bull standing left, head right; pellet between hind legs / Gorgoneion. SNG Ashmolean –; SNG BN –; SNG von Aulock –; BM –; CNG Inventory 974364. VF, die shift on reverse, small test cut on edge. Rare symbol.

Parion was a city of Mysia (Hellespontine Phrygia), located along the coast of the Hellespont, near the entrance to the Propontis. It was founded in the 8th/7th century BC by colonists from Miletos, Erythrai, and Paros (the latter of which are likely responsible for giving the city its name). The city began striking coinage in the late 6th century, consisting mainly of silver drachms with a gorgoneion on the obverse and a simple square incuse on the reverse. The gorgoneion remained a significant type on its civic coinage well into the early Roman Imperial period. Parion’s location relative to the Hellespont not only made it an important commercial center, as suggested by its prolific civic coinage, but also a strategically important city for the competing Hellenistic monarchies. Initially seized by the Macedonians under Alexander the Great, the city later switched hands multiple times between Lysimachos, Demetrios Poliorketes, the Seleukid kings from Seleukos I through Antiochos Hierax, and the Pergamene kingdom, who retained the city until it was annexed by Rome, circa 133 BC. Coinage was issued during all of these periods, though most of the coins were issues of the various kingdoms.

Both these issues and the roughly contemporary hemidrachms of Parion in Mysia are routinely found with small test cuts on the edge, placed by merchants to ensure that the coin was not plated.