Nomos 24

THRACE. Abdera. Circa 365-361 BC. Stater (Silver, 23.5 mm, 12.44 g, 3 h), struck under the magistrate Aristagoreos. Griffin with curved wings seated to left, his right fore-paw raised and the others flat on the ground. Rev. EΠ API - ΣT/AΓ - O-PEΩ Youthful Dionysos, draped from the waist with a himation and holding a kantharos in his right hand and a thyrsos with his left, seated to left on the back of a leopard (a panther?) standing to right. May, Abdera 398 (A 278/P 324, and p. 237, fig. 2 this coin), C. Severeanu, Bucuresti 1936, pp. 21-26 and figs. 1-2 (this coin). Also cited by K. Chryssanthaki, Abdera p. 122 and C. Lorber, Amphipolis, p. 178. Extremely rare, the second and most famous example known. Beautifully toned, struck from dies of exceptionally fine quality, and with a reverse of the very finest late Classical style. Extremely fine.

From a European collection, and that of L. von Hoffmann, Sotheby's, London, 5 July 1995, 38, ex Monnaies et Médailles 61, 7 October 1982, 81, and from the collection of C. Gillet (Kunstfreund), Münzen und Medaillen/Bank Leu, 28 May 1974, 132, probably acquired prior to World War II and apparently found in southern Bulgaria prior to 1936 .

The reverse scene on this stater is clearly taken from Greek painting, preserved to us on surviving mosaics and on painted pots. A contemporary Paestan Red Figure pot in the Louvre (dated to c. 370-360 BC) has a very closely related image (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifact?name=Louvre+K+240&object=Vase); while there is a similar scene on the famous, slightly later pebble mosaic from Pella, dating to c. 325-300 BC (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pebble_mosaic_pavement_from_the_Dionysos_House,_God_Dionysos_on_a_panther_and_griffin,_325-300_BC,_Archaeological_Museum,_Pella_(6919182334).jpg).