Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 718. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $2800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BITHYNIA, Calchedon. Antinoüs, favorite of Hadrian. Died 130 AD. Æ Medallion (38mm, 38.34 gm, 12h). ANTINOOC HRWC, bare-headed, half-length bust left / [XALKA] DONIOIC, Dionysus reclining left on the back of a panther running right, holding thyrsus in right hand and amphora in left; "NIKAIEWN" [IPPWN] in exergue. Cf. Blum pg. 47, 1 (same obverse die); RG pg. 300, 62 (same obverse die); BMC Pontus -; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG von Aulock -. VF, brown surfaces, tooled and smoothed. ($1000)

From the David A. Dowdy Collection. Ex Sternberg XIV (24-25 May 1984), lot 330.

The extensive tooling on this coin makes it difficult to determine the original type and legend. "NIKAIEWN" in the exergue is clearly impossible; the coin in Paris IPPWN (Hippon), the founder of Calchedon, and this was probably the original form of the legend on this coin. The panther and the figure of Dionysus have also been re-worked, and the original details probably were also the same as the Paris coin, which depicts Dionysus reclining left, his right arm over his head, on the back of a griffin flying right.

See lot 715 for a note on the life and coinage of Antinoüs.