Dies by the ‘Paris Master’

Sale: CNG 78, Lot: 729. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 May 2008.  Sold For $1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARKADIA, Arkadian League. Circa 460-450 BC. AR Hemidrachm (2.97 g, 11h). Dies by the ‘Paris Master’. Tegea mint. Zeus Lykaios seated right, holding scepter; to left, eagle flying left / Head of Kallisto facing slightly right, wearing tainia, within incuse square. Williams, Confederate 204 var. (O-/R127 [unlisted obv. die]); cf. BCD Peloponnesos 1714-5; SNG Copenhagen -; BMC 42 var. (ethnic). VF, toned, double struck on obverse.

Ex BCD Collection (not in LHS sale); van der Dussen (9 October 1989), lot 1208.

The engraver of the facing head of Kallisto on the present coin has been identified as the same person who produced the dies for an exceptional coin now residing in the BN. The portraits engraved by this ‘Paris Master’ have been recognized as being among the finest early classical facing heads from the Greek mainland.