Sale: Triton V, Lot: 1789. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 January 2002.  Sold For $1100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius. 138-161 AD. Æ Drachm. (22.43 gm). Year 24 (=160/161 AD). [AVT K] T AIL AÐP ANTWNEINOC C[EB EVC], laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / Perseus and Andromeda: [L] ÐEKATOV, Perseus advancing right, wearing Phrygian cap and chlamys, holding a harpa with his left hand over his left shoulder, extending his right hand to Andromeda; she is stepping down from rock-base, wearing chiton, extending her right hand to Perseus and left hand is held to her breast; behind Perseus, [K]. Köln 1856; Dattari 2990; Milne 2421; Cornell 120 (this coin). VF, brown patina, porous. ($750)

From the David Simpson Collection. Ex Spink's Numismatic Circular (December 1984), no. 2941.

Perseus came to Joppa in Palestine where he found the king's daughter Andromeda chained to a rock to be the prey of a sea monster, a situation that had been caused by the boasts of her mother Cassiopeia against the Nereids. For Cassiopeia had said that she was better than them all, and for that reason the Nereids felt angry, and Poseidon, sharing their wrath, sent a flood and a monster to invade the land. Andromeda, then, was exposed to the monster, in order to appease both Poseidon and the Nereids. When Perseus saw this girl in such a distress, he fell in love with her and promised her father the king that he would kill the monster if he would give him the rescued girl to wife. The king agreed, and Perseus slew the monster with his harpa and released Andromeda, the scene of this coin. Later her uncle, who had been betrothed to her, plotted against him, but Perseus, who now owned an extraordinary weapon, discovered the plot, and by taking out of his wallet the head of Medusa and showing it to the disappointed lover, turned him to stone.