Nomos 20

ARKADIA. Pheneos. Circa 360-350 BC. Drachm (Silver, 20 mm, 5.64 g, 4 h). Head of Demeter to left, wearing grain wreath, triple pendant earring and pearl necklace. Rev. ΦΕΝΕΩΝ Hermes, nude but for cloak hung around his neck, seated left on Mt. Kyllene, holding kerykeion in his right hand and resting his left on the rock; in field to left, [Θ]ΗΡΙ. BCD Peloponnesos 1616, BMC 14, BMFA 1267, Jameson 1266 = Traité III 901, pl. CCXXV, 8 (this coin), SNG Lockett 2526 (all struck from the same pair of dies). Very rare, (all the known drachms of Pheneos were struck from a single pair of dies). Nicely toned and of splendid style. Lightly porous surfaces, otherwise, good very fine.

From a Swiss collection and from the BCD Collection, LHS 96, 8 May 2006, 1616 as well as from the collections of C. Gillet, 1003, R. Jameson, F. S. Benson, SWH, 3 February 1909, 587, and Sir A. J. Evans (‘Archaeologist and Traveller’), SWH, 20 January 1898, 125 (there stated to have been found in Messina, Sicily! – could that possibly be in error for the more likely Messene in Messenia?).