Unpublished Mytilene Trihemiobol

CNG 85, Lot: 409. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LESBOS, Mytilene. Circa 521-478 BC. AR Trihemiobol (10mm, 1.38 g, 6h). Forepart of winged boar right / Incuse helmet. Gorny & Mosch 186, 1336 (Klazomenai), otherwise unpublished. Good VF, toned, some porosity. Extremely rare, perhaps the second known.

While unpublished, an assignment to Mytilene is quite reasonable. The obverse type, a forepart of a winged boar, was a fairly common type in western Asia Minor, having been used on issues at Klazomenai, Kyzikos, Samos, Mytilene, and Ialysos. At Kyzikos, the tunny was a canonical symbol that appeared on all of its archaic and classical coinage in all denominations and metals, and its absence on this issue eliminates that city as a possibility. The coinage of Samos and Ialysos have been the subject of specialized studies, and this issue would not fit into the scheme at either city. While the winged boar was featured on the obverses of their early coinage, these issues occur with reverses that were struck in relief. Moreover, Ialysos never had an issue with a typeless reverse, while Samos did, but the obverse type on those issues was a facing lion's head. Klazomenai, on the other hand, would be an obvious choice for this issue, as the type was the city’s primary symbol used on all of its archaic coinage. The progression of reverse types at Klazomenai, however, makes this attribution unlikely. The earliest issues are with a typeless, quadripartite square reverse, and these are followed by issues that contain the K of the city ethnic within the reverse squares. From these ethnic marked issues, the coinage develops into reverse types in relief, many of which still bear the city ethnic KΛA, though now on the obverse. The present issue simply does not fit in this logical type progression; Klazomenai must be ruled out. (There is an issue of diobols, traditionally attributed to Klazomenai, with the obverse forepart of winged boar and reverse head of Athena wearing helmet. One may speculate that the helmet here could be related to the helmet on the Athena of these coins, but such a connection is quite tenuous, considering the style of the helmet and its appearance in incuse form.) The elimination of the other candidate mints leaves only Mytilene, where the winged boar is featured on the obverse of many of its early issues of electrum hektes. Significantly, all of these issues (cf. Bodenstedt em. 6, 9.2, 10, 15, and 17) were struck with incuse figural reverse types, as on this coin. Although the helmet type does not appear on any of the incuse reverses at Mytilene, it does appear as an obverse type on contemporary issues of hektes at Phokaia (cf. Bodenstedt em. 30 and 50). The particular style of this helmet at Phokaia, especially the floral symbol on the bowl, is an exact match with the incuse helmet on the present coin. We know that these two cities had a close economic relationship (see E. Mackil and P. van Alfen, "Cooperative Coinage" in Studies Kroll), and although no other types are known to have been shared between them on any other issue, the attribution of this coin to Mytilene seems secure. Interestingly, at the same time as this silver was issued at Mytilene, Phokaia was also striking a silver trihemiobol, with the types female head left wearing cap / quadripartite incuse (cf. SNG Kayhan 522).