Nomos 24

CYCLADES, Ios. Circa 325-300 BC. Didrachm (Silver, 19 mm, 6.20 g, 9 h). ΟΜΗΡΟΥ Bearded head of Homer to right, wearing a simple taenia. Rev. ΙΗΤΩΝ within a laurel wreath tied at the bottom. Kraay & Hirmer 535 = Regling, Kunstwerk, 786 = Richter, PG, fig. 121 = Sheedy, Ios and Syros, Touratsoglou Studies, fig. 1, 1. (same obverse die). Monnaies et Médailles 76, 19 September 1991, 717 (Boutin Collection, same dies). Richter, PG, I, p. 48, 1-2 ff. and figs. 25-30 ff. (sculptural portraits of the Apollonios of Tyana type, with long hair falling down the back of the neck). Of the greatest rarity and importance, the finest and most famous of all the numismatic portraits of Homer. Beautifully toned and of the finest late Classical style. Nearly extremely fine.

From the BCD Collection, acquired in the early 1970s from a aspiring collector who had just inherited it from his father-in-law, who had, in turn, seemingly acquired it from his own father prior to World War I.

Homer, the apparent author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, is one of the greatest writers of all time: he was certainly the best known of all the poets of the ancient world. He is believed to have lived in the second half of the 8th and early 7th centuries BC and was closely connected to Ionia, though traditions vary: he is said to have been born on Chios, but also at either Smyrna or Kolophon. It is generally thought that he died on Ios. Most sources suggest that he was blind, though he has an eye with a pupil on the present coin. In fact, his portrait as shown here, has great affinities with the probably slightly earlier head of Zeus Lykaios that appeared on staters of the Arkadians struck in Megalopolis c. 363/2; except, of course, that Zeus wears a laurel wreath rather than a simple taenia. The extraordinarily high quality of the dies that produced these rare didrachms, along with the relative unimportance of the island of Ios itself, argues that these coins must have been produced for reasons of prestige, more than just commercial necessity.

When this coin was acquired in the 1970s it was still covered in corrosion products as found, and its types were only just visible. It was brought to the late John Pett of Spink's, who offered to have it cleaned, but his specialist cleaner refused to attempt it. It was then given to F. Kovacs, the well-known expert from California, who happened to be in London at that time. After a few days of extremely careful and professional work, FK was able to remove all the deposits, thus revealing the original surfaces in all their glory! To get a partial idea of what the coin looked like prior to cleaning, do look at the Berlin piece, which was acquired in 1873 as part of the collection of General C. R. Fox (1796-1873). The possibility that both the present piece and the Berlin/Fox example originally came from the same 19th century find is certainly not beyond the realms of possibility.

A note from BCD: I have been asked many times after the last BCD auction took place if there were any special coins kept back and not offered in the auctions. The answer was a very emphatic “No”, as I wanted the catalogues to be as complete as possible. However, this amazing piece did not belong to any of my collecting areas and so I chose to keep it, treasure it and enjoy it for as many years as I could. Silvia Hurter pleaded with me to consign it for the Bank Leu auctions but all I did was to allow her to photograph it. This photograph, together with Frank’s letter received with the coin after it was cleaned by him, are framed and hang over my desk in the library.

As any collector who acquires a great rarity that is also historically important would, I searched through the commercial section of my library trying to locate other specimens. The 1952 A.N.A. Convention sale catalogue featured such a coin in comparable condition to mine: lot 931, estimated at $500 and hammered at $390! It seems the American collectors at that time did not appreciate its importance, or perhaps thought it was estimated too high. The note after the description in the catalogue points to the only other one known: “…the hitherto unique specimen formerly in the Berlin Cabinet, now in Russia”. The cataloguer must either thought that East Berlin was part of Russia or that the Berlin coins moved to Russia!

I mentioned the sale to Charles Hersh and asked for his help. He wrote to me that he spoke to Henry Grunthal who suggested he gets in touch with Ed Gans to try and find out the buyer. Sadly, the answer was a disappointment: Gans wrote back to Charles that he remembered the coin but did not make a note of who bought it and he didn’t know what happened to the auction records.

One other specimen turned up later in the trade: Vinchon, 13 April 1985, lot 314. This coin, although quite corroded, sold for 28000 French francs on an estimate of 7000 / 8000 to M+M who bought it for Serge Boutin. Bob Hecht was the underbidder (he never ignored rare coins at an auction, especially if he knew he could make money from them). Boutin had just sold his Cretan collection in October 1984 and was polishing up his Aegean Islands that went under the hammer on 20 September 1991 in M+M 76. There, the Ios fetched 13,000 Swiss Francs on an estimate of 7,500. The buyer was Baldwin’s (against Tom Eden of Sotheby’s) and the coin went to the Goulandris Museum in Greece.

During my visit to East Berlin in the 70’s, the Ios didrachm was at the top of the list of coins to view. It was not mentioned in Pinder’s rare 1851 Berlin catalogue, it was absent from the 1873 edition authored jointly by Friedlaender and von Sallet and appears for the first time in the 1877 edition. Friedlaender published it with an etching in ZfN V (1878) in his article detailing the 1876 acquisitions and mentioned that it comes from the Fox collection. From then on it appears in all the Berlin handbooks and in the 1920 edition, authored by Kurt Regling, is finally listed as “Unicum”. More recently, in 1997, Hans-Dietrich Schultz in an overview of the Berlin collection, chose the enlarged Homer portrait to grace the cover of his fine publication titled “Das Kabinett 3”

This is all I could find on these great rarities but I hope the new owner will persevere and find out if this is really the third known coin with the earliest Homer portrait, or there is one more lurking in an unknown and secret collection, the coins of which have never seen the light of day because they are stored underground in rat infested vaults (as Alan Walker would say).