Triton XVI, Lot: 534. Estimate $10000. Sold for $26000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CYPRUS, Uncertain. Circa 450 BC. AR Stater (22mm, 10.62 g, 9h). Cow standing right, suckling calf standing left below; above, eagle flying right; to right, ankh with facing head of owl in upper portion / Bull standing right, head facing; plow above, facing head of owl below; all within shallow incuse square. SNG France (Cilicia) 440 (this coin referenced) = M. Amandry, “Acquisitions récentes des monnaies chypriotes au Cabinet des Médailles” in Cahier 17 (1992), plate II, 5; Leu 50, lot 216 (same dies). Good VF, lightly toned, slight die shift on reverse. Extremely rare, one of approximately three known (the others in the BN and a private collection).

Ex Leu 91 (10 May 2004), lot 184; Geissener Münzhandlung 44 (3 April 1989), lot 463.

The three examples known were all struck from the same die pair. The owl head on both sides was a later addition to the dies, as there is an example from the same dies in the BN without them. When first discovered, the coins were attributed to Sidon, but later to an uncertain mint in Cilicia. The analysis by Amandry, however, persuasively assigns them to an uncertain mint on Cyprus, especially in light of another coin with similar obverse (possibly the same die as these, but recut) and a reverse that appears more likely to be of Cypriot origin.