Kierion. Lot of 4 coins.

Triton XV, Lot: 107. Estimate $200. Sold for $1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Lot of 4 coins.

(107.1) THESSALY, Kierion. Early to mid 4th century BC. Æ Chalkous (16mm, 2.19 g, 12h). Laureate head of Zeus l. with a long pointed beard / ΚΙΕΡΙ l. up, the Ρ upside down, ΕΙΩΝ r. down, Arne, half-kneeling to her l. and playing with knucklebones to her r. Rogers 174; see also Nomos 4, 1070 (same obv. die); CNG e-sale 205 (25 February 2009) 89 (same dies). VF, attractive, light bluish green patina with some surface flaws on the reverse.

This obverse die seems to go with reverses that have the full ethnic spelled out; this could mean that they are slightly later issues than lots 105.1 and 105.2 but still within the first half of the 4th century BC.

(107.2) THESSALY, Kierion. Early to mid 4th century BC. Æ Chalkous (15.5mm, 2.34 g, 10h). Laureate and bearded head of Zeus l. / [Κ]ΙΕΡΙ l. up, ΑΙΟΝ r. down, Arne, half-kneeling to her l. and playing with knucklebones to her r. See G. Hirsch 258 (23 September 2008) 2149 (same obv. die). Good VF, dark olive - green patina with a few breaks or pits.


(107.3) THESSALY, Kierion. Early to mid 4th century BC. Æ Chalkous (15.5mm, 2.46 g, 6h). Laureate and bearded head of Zeus l. / ΚΙΕΡΙ l. up, ΑΙΟΝ r. down, Arne, half-kneeling to her l. and playing with knucklebones to her r., two animals face to face (?) in the exergue. Rogers 174, fig. 73; see also G. Hirsch 258 (23 September 2008) 2149 (same dies). VF, glossy dark green patina with a few (mostly edge) breaks.

There appears to be something engraved below the exergue line on the reverse die of this coin (also on the Hirsch coin mentioned above). To this writer it looks like two animals confronting each other (part of a frieze?); this could mean that there was a statuary prototype of Arne that provided the die cutters with a model for the reverse die compositions.

(107.4) THESSALY, Kierion. Early to mid 4th century BC. Æ Chalkous (14mm, 1.92 g, 1h). Laureate and bearded head of Zeus l., below neckline three indistinct letters / ΚΙΕΡ l. up, the Ρ upside down, Arne, half-kneeling to her l., playing with knucklebones to her r. Rogers 173a var. [the obverse letters here are surely not ΚΙΕΡΙΩΝ; also, on the reverse, there are no letters on the l. side of Arne as we look at our coin]. VF, smooth very dark green patina with hardly any faults on its surface.

Ex CNG 81 (20 May 2009) 392, hammer $200.

Rogers, describing his 173a (one coin only known to him, in his collection) reads ΚΙΕΡΙΩΝ below the neckline on the obverse. Here, from the three letters that show on the obverse of this coin, it can be concluded that it is neither of the same die, nor has it the same letters. See also SNG Cop. 35 with a very similar obverse die but without any mention of letters in the text and it is not possible to confirm their existence from the photograph. If this writer was obliged to suggest the three most likely letters for the obverse die of this coin, he would choose Ε, X and A.