Description

Nomos 3 & 4, Lot: 40. Estimate CHF27500. Sold for CHF23000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACE, Dikaia. Circa 515-480 BC. Stater (Silver, 9.73 g). Head of bearded Herakles to right, wearing lion skin headdress. Rev. Incuse square divided into four triangles, of which two are further divided in half by thin lines. ACGC 562. BMC 1. J. M. F. May, The Coinage of Dikaia-by-Abdera c. 540/35-476/5 B.C., NC 1965, pp. 1-25, and pl. I, 4 (this coin). Weber 2354 (this coin). Schönert-Geiss, Bisanthe 11 (V5/R5). Very rare. Lightly toned. Nearly extremely fine.

From the collection of APCW, ex Nomos FPL 3, 2010, 31, and from the collections of C. S. Bement I, Naville VI, 28 January 1924, 828 and Sir Hermann Weber.

This coin shows a head of Herakles who appears almost feral with his beady eye and his lion skin. One can imagine religious pageants when humans, perhaps priests, would dress up as the gods and act out the tales and legends devoted to their worship.