Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 361. Estimate $20000.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $17000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Phokaia. Circa 625-575 BC. EL Stater (16.35 gm). Seal (fwkh) swimming left, octopus clamped in its mouth, three square objects around / Two rough incuse squares set side-by-side, one smaller than the other. Apparently unpublished and unique, but cf. Bodenstedt 1.2 and Weidauer 188-189 for early staters of Phokaia with seal. Near VF. (See color enlargement on plate 4.) ($20,000) 

This coin, one of six known staters of Phokaia, represents a new variety of type, in addition to a seal and two griffin head types recorded by Bodenstedt. It is certainly the most playful, with its depiction of a seal munching on a hapless cephalopod.