Nomos 37

GAUL. Massalia or an uncertain mint in the Provence. Circa 520-475 BC. Obol (Silver, 10.5 mm, 1.14 g). Head of a goddess to left (Aphrodite?), with long hair shown by dots, frontal almond-shaped eye and round earring. Rev. Irregular incuse square. Furtwängler, Type A, p. 287, 11 and pl 41, 11. Maurel 38 (as Massalia proper). G. E. Reynaud, Un trésor de monnaies Massaliètes du Ve siècle, RN 1983, p. 36, 4 = pl. VI, 4. Very rare. A startlingly fine provincial archaic head, reminiscent of the issues of Knidos. Nearly extremely fine.

From the Apollo to Apollo Collection, acquired on 9 November 2008 in Nice.

This coin is featured in, H. B. Andersen, Masters of Miniature Art, A window to the birth of western culture and art, Nice, 2022, and, idem, Apollo to Apollo, The hunt for the divine and eternal beauty. Aschheim-Dornach, 2019.
In 1983 Reynaud published a photographic record of a then recent hoard of Massaliote coins that had appeared on the Paris market, and which contained a few pieces very much like this one. The article also contained a short but very erudite commentary by Mme Nicolet, in which she makes a good case for identifying the head on the obverse as that of Aphrodite rather than Artemis, as had been previously suggested; she is undoubtedly right.