Sale: Nomos 1, Lot: 101. Estimate CHF52500.  Closing Date: Tuesday, 5 May 2009.  Sold For CHF6000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Ephesos. Circa 133-88 BC. Stater (Gold, 8.60 g 12), 133/132. Draped bust of Artemis to right, wearing stephane, necklace of pearls and with her bow and quiver over her shoulder Rev. ΕΦ Statue of the Artemis of Ephesos facing; to left, crested helmet; to right, Β (= year 2 = 133/2 ?). Apparently unpublished. Extremely rare. Extremely fine.

The Hellenistic gold coinage of Ephesos is uniformly very rare; the sole publication on them is by G. K. Jenkins and appears in Anadolu 21 (1978-1980 - the Festschrift for E. Akurgal - published in 1987 and notoriously obscure). It had been previously thought that all the staters were struck during the Mithridatic wars but this seems not to be the case. Some appear to be dated by the era of the Province of Asia and the dates they bear are too early (like this one, assuming that the Β is a date, year 2, as seems likely; for another example of year 2, but with a tripod symbol, see Callataÿ pl. LI, k).