Nomos 5

ARKADIA, n/a. Heraia. Circa 500-495 BC. Hemidrachm (Silver, 2.98 g 2). Head of Hera to right, wearing stephane, beaded necklace and with her cloak folded over the top of her head. Rev. ΕΡ surrounded by a beaded square within a shallow incuse square. BCD 1350, BMC 1, BMFA 1237, Williams Period I, 2 (O.2/R.2) (all struck from the same dies. Jameson 2109 = Weber 4279 (this coin). Extremely rare. Lightly toned. . Minor edge crack, otherwise, extremely fine.

From the BCD Collection, Triton XIII, 5 January 2010, 163 and from the collections of R. Jameson, Sir Hermann Weber and Stratford Canning, Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, SWH 1879, 18.

Of the previous owners of this coin, at least three were very distinguished collectors:,BCD, Robert Jameson and Sir Hermann Weber; but its first known modern owner was an equally distinguished diplomat. Stratford Canning (1786-1880) was, most suitably, the first British ambassador to the new state of Greece (1828-1833): it would be fascinating to know if he had acquired this coin then. Previously he had been ambassador to Switzerland (1814-1820), the United States (1820-1824) and the Ottoman Empire (1825-1828 - he returned to Constantinople as ambassador from 1841 to 1858). Interestingly enough, there is a square in Athens named Plateia Kanningos - Canning Square - this was, however, not named after Stratford Canning, but after his cousin George Canning (1770-1827) who had been the British Foreign Secretary and had greatly supported the Greek Revolution.