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Nomos 37

Zurich, 16 November 2025, 14:00 CET

Zunfthaus zur Saffran, Limmatquai 54, 8001 Zurich

overview
Estimate: 750 CHF
Hammer Price:  1700 CHF
Lot 21

GAUL. Massalia or an uncertain mint in the Provence. Circa 500-475 BC. Obol (Silver, 9.5 mm, 0.87 g), Graeco-Provincial Series. Seal with a large eye swimming to right. Rev. Rough incuse square. F/Py OBB-33. Furtwängler, Annexe 1, 1, pl. 41,1. Maurel 144. Very rare, attractive old cabinet tone and with a charmingly naive seal. About extremely fine.

From the Apollo to Apollo Collection, ex Parsy, 8 April 2014, 43.

This coin is featured in, H. B. Andersen, Masters of Miniature Art, A window to the birth of western culture and art, Nice, 2022

Since the seal that appears as this coin's type was also the badge of the Ionian city of Phokaia, from where the founders of Massalia came, it seems more than likely that this coin was actually struck there. Though it is true that things that make sense to us today did not always make sense in antiquity.

Online bidding closes: 16 Nov 2025, 09:00:00 CET Current Date & Time: 9 Apr 2026, 21:41:22 CEST Remaining Time: Closed Hammer Price:1700 CHF
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