Midas, the Mytho-Historical King of Phrygia and Lydia

Sale: CNG 81, Lot: 793. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009.  Sold For $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHRYGIA, Prymnessus. Pseudo-autonomous issue. Time of Gallienus, AD 253-268. Æ 23mm (5.32 g, 6h). Draped bust of King Midas right, wearing Phrygian cap / Dikaiosyne standing left, holding scales and scepter. Von Aulock, Phrygiens 955/956 (same obv./rev. dies); SNG München -; SNG von Aulock 3938 (same dies). VF, rough green patina. Rare.

From the D. Alighieri Collection.

Midas, the mytho-historical king of Phrygia and Lydia, was granted the so-called "Golden Touch" by Dionysus because the king wished for unending wealth as a reward for his guest-friendship to Silenus. Everything Midas touched turned to gold, including food. Starving and pleading for relief, the king was instructed to bathe in the waters of the river Pactolus. The water removed Midas’ “gift” and turned the sand of the river-bed into grains of gold. It was the naturally-occuring ore of the Pactolus that became the source of the metal used in the first archaic electrum coinages of Asia Minor.