Nomos 23

IONIA. Uncertain. Circa 600-550 BC. Stater (Electrum, 21 mm, 10.73 g), on the Lydo-Milesian standard, but made of an electrum with a very low gold content. Forepart of a man-headed bull to right. Rev. Two rectangular incuse punches with irregular surfaces. Unpublished in the standard references, but cf. BMC Miletus 1 for a somewhat similar piece. Of great interest and particularly intriguing. Lightly struck and with corroded surfaces, otherwise, fine.

From the stock of a German dealer who bought it from an impecunious scholar who acquired it from the "uncertain box" of a part-time dealer in southern Germany who sold it under the impression it was a curious rock.