CNG 97, Lot: 149. Estimate $3000. Sold for $5500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ASIA MINOR, Uncertain western mint. Circa 145-140 BC. AR Tetradrachm (30mm, 16.41 g, 11h). Stephanophoric type. Head of Demeter right, wearing wreath of grain ears / Two kabeiroi, nude but for cloak tied at their necks, standing facing, each wearing laurel wreath and holding staff in outer hand; ΘEΩN KABEIPΩN at sides, ΣYPIΩN below, monogram to lower right; all within wreath. Nicolet-Pierre & Amandry – (unlisted dies); HGC 6, 709. VF, iridescent toning, soft strike on obverse. Rare.

For the reattribution of this issue from Cycladic Syros to a mint in western Asia Minor, see pp. 184-91 of A. Meadows, “The Closed Currency System of the Attalid Kingdom,” in: P. Thonemann, ed., Attalid Asia Minor (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013). Meadows, agreeing with previous scholars that the issue was linked to the Attalid Kingdom, discusses a variety of possible mints, including Pergamon, Ephesos, Tralleis, Temnos, and an uncertain mint in Pamphylia. He also notes that it might be an issue of the Association of the Artists of Dionysos, if the coinage was struck at Pergamon.