An Enigmatic Reverse

Sale: CNG 79, Lot: 598. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 17 September 2008.  Sold For $7500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Phocaea. Philip I. AD 244-249. Æ Medallion (29.67 g, 6h). Cl. Scribonianus, strategus. • A • K • MAP • IOV • • ΦIΛIΠΠOC •, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind / • EΠ • CT KΛ • CKPEI/• BωNIA/NOY • above, • ΦωKAIEωN • in exergue, dog standing right, biting into a captured dolphin left with tail upturned. SNG München -; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG von Aulock -; BMC 160. Good VF, brown patina. Extremely rare, one of two known (the other is in the BM).

The enigmatic reverse type of this coin has defied any substantially conclusive explanation. Phocaea’s extant foundation mythology does not include this topos, and the civic badge was the seal, rather than the dolphin. To date, Head’s suggestion (HN, p. 590) seems the only explanatory attempt: the dog is a personification of the local river, the Smardos, rushing down to the sea, personified by the dolphin. Otherwise, the meaning of this scene is unknown.