Nomos 24

IONIA. Ephesos. Phanes, circa 625-600 BC. Trite (Electrum, 14 mm, 4.67 g). ΦΑΝΕΟΣ (retrograde in archaic letters) Stag grazing right, with its body ornamented with a lozenge pattern reminiscent of the filling ornaments found on contemporary East Greek painted pottery. Rev. Two irregular square incuses, each ornamented with raised intersecting lines. ACGC 54. Kraay & Hirmer 585. SNG München 14. Weidauer 40. Very rare, perhaps the best example still in private hands, and a coin of great importance. Very minor marks, otherwise, about extremely fine.

From the Acer Rubrum Collection, ex Nomos 17, 26 October 2018, 168, and the collection of L. A. Adams, Triton XIX, 5 January 2016, 2056.

This electrum third stater comes from the first series of coins ever to bear a personal name – here that of an otherwise unknown Phanes. The stag was the totem animal of Artemis, the great goddess of Ephesos: whether Phanes was an actual official of the sanctuary, or just a prominent merchant or banker who was responsible for the coins and who, out of piety, honored the goddess by the type, is unknown.