Scholarly Debate

Sale: CNG 79, Lot: 137. Estimate $2500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 17 September 2008.  Sold For $2500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACO-MACEDONIAN REGION, Uncertain. Circa 520-500 BC. AR Hemidrachm or Tetrobol (2.35 g). Grape bunch / Quadripartite incuse square. SNG Copenhagen 767; Boston MFA 1295; Weber 4731 (all as issue of Tenos in Cyclades). Good VF, toned. Very rare.

Ex Dr. Roland Maly Collection (LHS 100, 23 April 2007), lot 270; P.M. Proschowsky Collection (Rasmussen 245, 10 March 1970), lot 715; Durulfé Collection (Rollin et Feuardent, 9 May 1910), lot 479.

This coin type has traditionally been attributed to the mint of Tenos in the Cyclades (see L. Artemis-Gyselen, “Les monnaies archaïques de Ténos” in RN 1977, class 2). However, more recent studies of the coinage of Tenos have concluded that this attribution was erroneous (see Sheedy, pp. 72-4, and R. Étienne & L. Artemis-Gyselen, "L'Atelier monétaire de Ténos," in R. Étienne, Tenos II [Paris, 1990]). Sheedy’s analysis of the metrology of these archaic coins has led him to place them at an uncertain mint in the Thraco-Macedonian region.