Nomos 24

LESBOS. Unattributed early mint. Circa 500-450 BC. 1/4 Stater (Silver, 15 mm, 3.10 g), Phocaic standard, c. 500-460. Two profile boar's heads nose-to-nose, forming a single facing boar's scalp. Rev. Incuse square divided into four triangles. Jameson 1463. Rosen 541. Very rare. Struck in surprisingly good silver, rather than the usual billon. Some porosity, otherwise, about extremely fine.

From a collector in the Antipodes, acquired prior to 2000.

The double boar's head coinage of Lesbos is quite well-known, but the 1/4 staters, as compared to the 1/6s, 1/8s, 1/12s, 1/24s, and 1/36s, are very rare, indeed. The quality of the silver also seems to be higher and that may be the reason why the reverse punches were made to differ from the usual ones used for the true billon issues: all of those had quadripartite incuse squares divided vertically and horizontally, while this is divided diagonally. This must have been done to allow the ancient user to distinguish the good silver pieces from the others.