Cabinet W
ELIS, Olympia. 79th-80th Olympiad. Later 460s BC

Triton XV, Lot: 1006. Estimate $50000. Sold for $55000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ELIS, Olympia. 79th-80th Olympiad. Later 460s BC. AR Stater (23mm, 12.08 g, 11h). Eagle, with wings open above and below his body, flying to left, grasping a coiling snake in his beak and with his talons / F A, Nike running to left, wearing a diadem and a chiton and with open wings, holding a wreath in her outstretched right hand and holding the hem of her chiton with her left; all within a circular incuse. BCD Olympia 7 = Käppeli F 40 = MGK 460 = W. Schwabacher, “Olympischer Blitzschwinger,” Antike Kunst 5/1 (1962), pl. 7, 2 (this coin); SNG Delepierre 2038; Seltman 20 (dies N/ρ). Extremely rare. A superb piece with a wonderful late archaic depiction of Nike. Beautifully toned. Some very minor scratches in the obverse field and with minor edge marks, otherwise, extremely fine.

Ex BCD Collection (Leu 90, 10 May 2004), lot 7 (illustrated on the cover), and the collection of R. Käppeli.

This is one of the finest of all the early staters of Olympia, made very soon after the mint began striking circa 470 BC (probably in 468). The eagle here is the majestic bird of Zeus, more-or-less based on the eagle found on the coinage of Chalkis in Euboea. The Nike is one of the first to appear on Olympia’s coinage and shows her running, her left hand holding her hem up so she will not trip, and with a wreath in her right hand to crown a victor in the Olympic Games.