Extremely Rare Early Stater

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 136. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $2000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ILLYRIA, Apollonia. Circa 450-350 BC. AR Stater (10.84 g, 6h). Cow standing left, suckling calf standing right / A-P-OL, double stellate pattern within linear frame; bow to left; all within linear circle within incuse circle. Traité IV 380 = Photiadès Pacha Collection (Hoffman, 1890), lot 190, otherwise unpublished. VF, lightly toned, slight granularity. Extremely rare.

Unlike the contemporary staters of Dyrrhachion and Korkyra with these types, the staters of Apollonia are extremely rare, with approximately 4 known coins of which there are three varieties. This particular variety, with the cow left on the obverse and reverse with bow and legend A-P-OL, is only known from Photiadès Pacha 190, which is unfortunately not illustrated in any catalog. The BMC 1 and Jameson 2044 (= Weber 2693 = Photiadès Pacha 191) coins all are of the Traité IV 379 variety, with obverse cow right and reverse with no bow and legend A-P. Pozzi 1268 (= Pozzi, Boutin 2913) has a similar obverse as these, but the reverse has a bow to the left, a club below the stellate pattern, and legend AP-A.