Ex Grand Duke Mikhailovich Collection

CNG 96, Lot: 386. Estimate $10000. Sold for $15000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MYSIA, Kyzikos. 5th-4th centuries BC. EL Stater (20mm, 16.04 g). Horse prancing left, trailing rein; below, tunny left / Quadripartite incuse square. Von Fritze I 218; Boston MFA 1562; SNG von Aulock –; SNG France –. VF, toned, a couple edge splits. Very rare.

Ex Leu 25 (23 April 1980), lot 136; Grand Duke George Mikhailovich Collection (Naville IV, 17 June 1922), lot 771.

Naville IV was a sale composed of coins from Grand Duke Mikhailovich, Sir Arthur Evans, and “other amateurs.” It is unfortunate that, as with many sales of that time, individual lots were not pedigreed to any specific collection. As such, attributing a coin as ex-Mikhailovich is usually not reliable. However, the introduction to the Naville IV sale specifies that the electrum staters and hektes of Kyzikos appearing in that sale are, in fact, from the Mikhailovich collection.