Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 207. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $2200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLANDS off CARIA, Kos. Circa 500-480 BC. AR Drachm (4.61 g). Crab / Rough incuse square. Tzamalis 4; otherwise unpublished. EF, toned. Extremely rare.

Ex Classical Numismatic Group 60 (22 May 2002), lot 248; Classical Numismatic Group 57 (4 April 2000), lot 151.

These archaic crab/incuse coins are known in a variety of denominations, in both electrum and silver. The electrum consists solely of fractions (cf. Traité I 720), while the silver is known in a variety of denominations: staters (cf. SNG von Aulock 2745 = Rosen 641; BMC 1; Traité I 71), drachms (Tzamalis 4), diobols (cf. SNG von Aulock 2746; SNG Copenhagen 615; BMC 2; Rosen 642; Traité I 719), and hemiobols (cf. SNG Kayhan 902; HPM pl. XV, 16; Tzamalis 5). Although the singular type suggests they belong to the same mint, the weights of the various silver denominations are puzzling. The staters average 12.19 grams, the drachms 4.96 grams, the diobols 1.58 grams, and the hemiobols 0.47 grams. While this suggests the staters and fractions may belong to different mints, the strong similarity in the style of the crabs, which are also comparable to crabs on slightly later Koan issues (particularly the diskoboloi), indicates otherwise. A plausible explanation is that the coins were struck on different standards to facilitate particular transactions for which disparate standards were required.