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January 15-16, 2013 - New York, NY
FOURTH SESSION
Wednesday, January 16, 2013- 2:00 p.m.
Lots 915-1555
Spink Smythe, New York
ANCIENT COINS
Ancient Greek Coinage
917
915
915 Kingdom of Macedon, Philip II (359-336 BC), AR
Tetradrachm, Amphipolis, struck ca. 320/19-317 BC,
14.34 gms, laureate Zeus head right, rev. ΦIΛIΠ-ΠoY,
youth on horseback right holding palm, AI monogram
below horse’s belly, Λ below raised foreleg (Cf.
Le Rider 44,7 - different symbol below foreleg), test
cut from reverse edge at 6:00, very fine. (photo)
Est. 400-600
916
916 Attica, Athens (ca. 454-404 BC), AR Tetradrachm,
struck 420-404 BC, 17.05gms, helmeted head of
Athena right, rev. AE, owl standing right, head facing,
olive sprig and crescent behind (Kroll 8, SNG
Copenhagen 31), light gray, full profile, very fine.
(photo) Est. 600-700
917 Paphlagonia, Sinope (ca. 330-300 BC), AR
Tetradrachm, Attic standard, 15.62gms, head of the
city-goddess right, wearing mural crown, rev. INEN,
Apollo seated right on omphalos, holding lyre and
plektron, A-M-T in right field, small countermark “M”
above the “T” (cf.SNG v. Aulock 6861),lightly toned
over some old pinscratches in field, overall a decent example
of a very rare and important issue of Sinope seldom
offered in public sale, very fine. Originally a
Hittite port, Sinope became the wealthiest emporium on
the southern Euxine coast. Between 780 and 756 BC,
Milesian Greeks founded a settlement there, while the
area came under Phrygian contol in 700 BC. Sinope
was laid waste by the Cimmerians in 677 BC, only to be
refounded as a Milesian colony in ca. 630 BC. It later
came under the yoke of the Persian empire. Following
the defeat of the Persians at the hands of Alexander the
Great, the Macedonian ruler told Sinope’s ambassador
that the city should keep its old independence. After
Alexander’s death, Sinope was able to remain independent
both of the Seleukids and the Pontic kings. Syrian
influence, though, was clear and this tetradrachm
emulates Seleukid types of Antiochos III, albeit in distinctive
Sinopan fashion. The obverse depicts Sinope,
daughter of Asopus, who, according to the Greek historian
Diodorus Siculus, bore Apollo (depicted on the reverse)
a son, Syrus, the eponymous first king of the
Syrians. (photo) Est. 3,000-4,000
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