Extremely Rare Issue of Gorgion

456, Lot: 154. Estimate $300. Sold for $400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MYSIA, Gambrion. Gorgion. Circa 400 BC. AR Tetrobol (12mm, 3.24 g, 5h). Laureate head of Apollo right / Forepart of bull butting right, head facing, tamgha on shoulder; kerykeion above. SNG BN 895 var. = Traité II 47 var. = J.-P. Six, "Monnaies grecques, inédites et incertaines" in NC 1894, p. 315, n. 1 var. (name of Gorgion above bull); Winterthur 2527 var. (same); CNG 87, lot 522 (incorrectly attributed to Magnesia in Ionia). Deeply toned, slightly granular surfaces. Good VF. Extremely rare, one of only two known of this variety (the other: CNG 87, lot 522).

From the BRN Collection. Ex Naumann 44 (7 June 2016), lot 354.

Gorgion was a son of Gongylos the Eretrian, who, in 475 BC, had been awarded by the Persian King Xerxes I a number of cities of Mysia in return for his betrayal of the Greeks during the Persian Wars (Diod. 11.44). After his father's death (circa 425 BC?), Gorgion was given the towns of Gambrion and Palægambrion, while his brother, Gongylos II, received Myrina and Grynion (Xen. Hell. 3.1.6). The brothers joined the Spartan general Thimbron when he arrived in the region to support the Ionians against the Persian Tissaphernes, but they disappear from the historical record thereafter. The coins of Gorgion are only known from Gambrion, and are exceedingly rare. The present and CNG 87 pieces appear to be a new variety with a kerykeion above the bull, and the family tamgha is in the die, rather than added as a punch (as on the Paris coin). [Note: CNG 97, lot 513, is another with these types, but is a subsequent civic issue with part of the city ethnic barely visible in the field. Pecunem 8, lot 150, is an example of this type in Gorgion’s name, like SNG BN 895.]