175, Lot: 80. Estimate $100. Sold for $161. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Teos. Circa 407 BC. AR Obol (12mm, 0.89 g). Satyros, magistrate. Griffin with straight wing seated right / Quadripartite incuse square; magistrate’s name engraved boustrephedon across the square. Balcer p. 16; cf. BMC 22 (different magistrate). VF, some porosity.

The first coins with magistrate’s names from Teos came about after the lifting of Athenian hegemony over Ionia upon their final defeat in the Peloponnesian War. It appears that in the first phase the names were simply engraved rather roughly over the standard quadripartite incuse type, with not much concern over the placement of letters. Later on the names were added to the wider crossbars of the divided square.