|
MYSIA, Pergamon. Circa 400 BC. AR Hemidrachm (11mm, 1.72 g, 11h). Chian standard. Laureate head of Apollo right; star behind neck / Bearded head right, wearing Persian tiara, within incuse square. Von Fritze, Pergamon, pl. I, 1; Mørkholm, Pergamene 1; SNG BN 1546–8 var. (no star); SNG Arikantürk 726–30 var. (same); Winzer 7.1. Iridescent tone, some porosity, a few marks on obverse. Good VF. Well centered and struck.
From the J. de Wilde Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group 94 (18 September 2013), lot 461.
The identification of the portrait on the reverse of this issue has been the subject of debate. The individualized features suggest it is the portrait of a person rather than the personification of a deity or mythical figure. Most recently, Winzer assigned this issue to Eurysthenes, but this attribution originally posited by E. Babelon in Traité II, is based on a misinterpretation of Xenophon, Hellenica 3.1.6 (see Mørkholm, Pergamene, p. 182, note 1). Mørkholm notes that the natural meaning of that passage in Xenophon is that Eurysthenes, and his brother, Prokles, ruled over Teuthrania and Halisarna, and never had possession of Pergamon. A more likely identification, according to Mørkholm, relies upon Xenophon, Hellenica 7.8.8. After the defeat of the Persians in the early fifth century, Gongylos of Eretria, who had served as an intermediary between the Spartans and Xerxes, was compelled to flee to Asia Minor, where he was granted the territory of Pergamon as a reward from the Great King. His descendants ruled over the city until at least 400 BC, so it is likely that the satrap depicted here is one of the Gongylid rulers.
The final winners of all CNG 120 lots will be determined at the live online sale that will be held on 11-12 May 2022. CNG 120 – Session One – Greek Coinage (Part 1) will be held Wednesday morning, 11 May 2022 beginning at 9:00 AM ET.
Winning bids are subject to a 20% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 22.50% for all others.
We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and the stable previous version of Mozilla Firefox and Chrome.
|
