Sale: CNG 64, Lot: 304. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 24 September 2003.  Sold For $545. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PISIDIA, Selge(?). Circa 400-350 BC. AR Obol (1.05 gm). Astragalos; small club at side / Facing owl with out-spread wings. SNG France -; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG von Aulock -. Unpublished in the major collections. Toned, good VF. ($300)

The astragalos (knuckle bone) and club of Herakles are used as subsidiary symbols on the staters of Selge of the 4th century. The appearance of the frontal owl is otherwise unattested on the coinage of Selge or elsewhere in the region.

Heipp-Tamer publishes a similar piece for Phaselis in Lycia, with stars flanking astragalos and FA flanking owl (her no. 80). However, her attribution of no. 80 to Phaselis is based on the appearance of owl and astragalos symbols on one known example of a stater of that city (no. 75), where the species of the bird is unclear and the "astragalos" may be a low altar. The FA legend is unclear on her example, and the weight of the piece, 1.01 grams, does not fit neatly into the Phaselis monetary system.