Obolos 41

CYCLADES, Seriphos or an uncertain Cycladic Island. Circa 530 BC. Stater (Silver, 23 mm, 13.27 g), struck on the Milesian standard. Facing Gorgoneion with protruding tongue. Rev. Irregular incuse square. HGC 6, 683 = G.T. Jenkins, "Greek Coins Recently Acquired by the British Museum", NC 1955, p. 139-140 (but as uncertain Cyclades) = W. Schwabacher, "Contributions to Greek Numismatics", NC 1939, p. 19-20, 15 = Sheedy p. 46 and pl 20, 5. A coin of great rarity - only the second example known. An impressive piece. With slightly rough surfaces and a deep test cut on the obverse, otherwise, very fine.

This is an extremely rare Cycladic coin, which was previously only known from the single British Museum example. That piece came from E.S.G Robinson, who acquired it, c. 1950, from the Petsalis Collection, into which it had entered, well before World War II, having been bought from a lady living on the island of Melos. This coin was a puzzle for all the scholars who wrote about it: when Schwabacher published it in 1939 he attributed it slightly tentatively to Melos; Jenkins, in 1955, admitted that Melos was a possible attribution but, nevertheless, preferred to assign it to an uncertain mint in the Cyclades; as for Sheedy, he was, in 2006, loathe to attribute it to a specific island: he suggested it might have been struck in Seriphos, but did not include it among the coins definitely attributed there, only placing it within the comparanda (especially since the weight standard perplexed him - as it also did both Schwabacher and Jenkins).