Nomos 19

CYPRUS. Salamis. Gorgos II, circa 450-440/30 BC. Stater (Silver, 20 mm, 11.18 g, 10 h). 𐠚𐠍𐠧𐠎 𐠩-𐠵𐠐𐠪𐠞 (= 'pa-si-le-wo-[se] /gu-ru-ko-ne', [' Of the King Gorgos', in retrograde Cypriote syllabary]) Ram recumbent to left. Rev. 𐠚𐠍𐠧𐠎 𐠩𐠵𐠐𐠪𐠞 (= 'pa-si-le-wo-se /gu-ru-ko-ne', [' Of the King Gorgos', in retrograde Cypriote syllabary]) Ram's head to right. Extremely rare. A splendid late stater of Gorgos with an outstanding reverse. Lightly toned. Traces of incipient die breaks and rust, otherwise, about extremely fine.

From a German collection formed in the early 2000s, prior to 2007.

The coinage of Gorgos II was basically unknown until a stater, struck from the same obverse die as our piece, but with a differing reverse, appeared as Roma XIII, 2017, 411. That coin, from a Bavarian collection formed between 1960 and 1990, was quite a sensation; that was followed by a second, somewhat better preserved example (Roma XVII, 2019, 550), from that same Bavarian collection. The obverse die used for both of these coins appears to be of a later, cleaned up state, of the die used for our piece. Ours has considerable die rust and cracks: these can still be seen on the Roma coins, but mostly cleaned off; the lines forming the letters on the Roma pieces are rather thinner than those on our piece, and the dot-like blobs that make up the ram's fur are also smaller (thus, recut to remove die wear) than those on ours. The reverse die used for two Roma pieces differs from ours. Somewhat surprisingly, a third Gorgos stater appeared earlier this year, seemingly from the same obverse die as ours, but with an oddly crude and unconvincing reverse (Leu Numismatik AG 4, 2019, 372); despite a supposedly ancient test cut on its reverse, the exceptionally poor style of the reverse (the ram's neck truncation is impossible for an ancient coin; and the lettering is unacceptably crude), made it clear that the LNA coin was not genuine, and it was very properly withdrawn as a forgery.