Sale: Nomos 5, Lot: 183. Estimate CHF6500.  Closing Date: Monday, 24 October 2011.  Sold For CHF6000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Ionia or Northern Greece, Uncertain. Circa 600-550 BC. Hekte (Electrum, 2.73 g), probably on the Phokaian weight standard. Scorpion Rev. Irregular incuse square. Apparently unpublished and unknown, but cf. the hemihekte of the same types that appeared as Leu 30, 1982, 173 . Some minor marks, otherwise, extremely fine.

Ex Gorny & Mosch 190, 11 October 2010, 245.

This is an extraordinary piece, quite clearly on the Phokaian standard (as is the piece in the Leu sale cited above - there are lighter electrum pieces with scorpions, as Weidauer 170, but they seem to be on the Milesian standard). The possibility that this piece may have been produced in Thrace or Macedon, given the well known bee that is found on uncertain silver coins from that area (as CNG Auction 88, 75) is not unlikely, especially given the rather rough incuse square. There is also a very similar scorpion on some slightly later silver coins that are now also attributed to northern Greece since some have been found there (as SNG Copenhagen 377 and SNG con Aulock 6664 - both published as being from Asia Minor).