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Research Coins: Feature Auction

 
Sale: Triton V, Lot: 1271. Estimate $10000. 
Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 January 2002. 
Sold For $7000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MACEDON, The Orreskioi. Circa 490-480 BC. AR Stater (8.98 gm). Centaur right, carrying off protesting nymph / Quadripartite incuse square. Svoronos pl. VI, 17 (same obverse die); SNG ANS 980 (same obverse die). Attractively toned, near EF, small flan crack, choice flan. Rare and exceptional for this issue. ($10,000)

This coin is struck from the finest dies in this rare series. The coin has an even, beautiful old cabinet tone with good detail on the faces of the satyr and nymph. Most examples of this series are of far inferior artistic quality while this is of excellent metal quality and sharp relief.

The centaur is called by Homer "Orescoos," the mountain dweller (lIiad I, 268), and thus the reason for the choice of the type for these issues by the tribe of the Orreskioi, who seem to have been located near to the Edomi, on the east of the Strymon and to the north-east of Mt. Pangaion. The presence of these staters in the Asyut hoard (nos. 90-93) confirms their dating to about 480 BC.