CNG 84, Lot: 560. Estimate $100. Sold for $180. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CIMMERIAN BOSPOROS, Phanagoreia. Circa 140-108 BC. Æ (15mm, 1.95 g, 4h). Wreathed and bearded head of satyr right / Bow and kerykeion. MacDonald 157 note corr.; Anokhin -; SNG BM Black Sea -; SNG Stancomb -. VF, dark green patina, a little rough, a hint of smoothing in fields. Very rare with caduceus.

From the Alex Shubs Collection.

MacDonald comments that “[o]n some specimens the arrow nock and fletching are so large that the arrow resembles a caduceus [kerykeion].” Certainly, on some examples, this is the case (e.g. CNG E-Auction 107, lot 32), but on those examples the arrow tip is clearly angled to represent a point. On the present coin, the bottom of the kerykeion is clearly a straight line, resembling a base, rather than an arrow tip. Whether this was a mistake of the engraver is uncertain, but it is clear that the device here is a kerykeion, not an arrow.