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Nomos 20

10 July 2020
Zunfthaus zur Saffran, Zurich

overview
Estimate: 3750 CHF
Hammer Price:  3200 CHF
Lot 197

TROAS. Dardanos. Third Quarter of the 4th Century BC. 1/8 Stater (Gold, 8 mm, 1.06 g, 6 h). Youthful head of Herakles to left, wearing lion's skin headdress. Rev. Rooster standing to left. Apparently unpublished and unknown save for its previous auction appearance. Apparently unique. Intriguing and unusual. About extremely fine.

From a Swiss collection, ex Roma E-Sale 23, 9 January 2016, 161.

A very curious coin! At one point during the cataloguing process it was proposed that a case could be made for abandoning this coin's attribution to Dardanos (made by the erudite scholar who catalogued it for the Roma E-Sale in January 2016), and suggesting that it was, rather, struck as an emergency/special issue at either Himera or Thermae Himerensis in Sicily! However, slightly unusually, better sense prevailed and so the attribution to Dardanos has been retained. In any case, the lack of an identifying inscription would be very unusual for a coin from Sicily. In support of an attribution to Dardanos are the facts that not only are youthful heads of Herakles known from what are probably somewhat contemporary electrum issues at Kyzikos, Mytilene and Phokaia, but the connection of this coin's rooster with Dardanos is also fully believable: the Roma cataloguer's dismissal of Dikaia as a possible mint is clearly correct. Why it should have been struck, and why in such a denomination, has to remain unknown.

Online bidding closes: 10 Jul 2020, 10:00:00 CEST Current Date & Time: 29 Mar 2024, 01:40:50 CET Remaining Time: Closed Hammer Price:3200 CHF

Pre-Bidding closes on 10 Juli 2020 at 10:00 CEST. Live bidding starts at 14:00 CET and is EXCLUSIVELY available on biddr. Separate registration is required.

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