Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 426. Estimate $2500.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $1600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LYCIA, Phaselis. Circa 550 BC. AR Stater (10.82 gm). Prow of galley right in the form of a boar's head, exophthalmic eye / Divided incuse punch. SNG von Aulock 4389; Heipp-Tamer, pg. 129, 1. Toned EF. Very rare. ($2500) 

Phaselis was founded in 690 BC by settlers from the island of Rhodes. In the same year, the great Rhodian seafarers also founded Gela, on the island of Sicily, thus extending their influence across the Greek world. The colony of Phaselis was the one purely Greek city in Lycia and differed in language, culture and alphabet from the adjacent cities of the region. It should be noted that the coinage of Phaselis is among the earliest, if not the earliest, of all silver coinage struck in Asia Minor. Struck circa 550 BC, this coin is roughly contemporary with the silver issues of King Kroisos of Lydia and represents the dawn of this medium of exchange in Asia Minor.