Unique Transitional Tetradrachm

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 204. Estimate $10000.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $9000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CARIA, Knidos. Circa 404-395 BC. AR Tetradrachm (15.27 g, 6h). Head and foreleg of lion right / Head of Aphrodite right, hair in ampyx and sphendone, wearing single-pendant earring and pearl necklace with frontal pendant; uncertain control mark (acorn?) behind neck, K-NI across lower field; all within incuse square. Hecatomnus p. 120, pl. 13, A (this coin); otherwise unpublished. Near EF, attractively toned, light scuff on obverse, a few marks and slight die shift on reverse. Apparently unique.

Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 7 (1 March 1994), lot 246; Numismatica Ars Classica 4 (27 February 1991), lot 148.

Ashton, in his note on this piece in his commentary on the Knidos coins in the Hecatomnus Hoard (CH IX, p. 120), assigns this piece to the period just following the ΣYN series of 405/4 BC, and preceding the issues in the hoard. The coin maintains the format of the 5th century issues cataloged by Cahn, and is apparently the first Knidian tetradrachm struck on the Chian weight standard.