Very Rare Athens Didrachm

CNG 99, Lot: 121. Estimate $15000. Sold for $27500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ATTICA, Athens. Circa 475-465 BC. AR Didrachm (19mm, 8.49 g, 11h). Head of Athena right, wearing earring, necklace, and crested Attic helmet decorated with three olive leaves over visor and a spiral palmette on the bowl / Owl standing right, head facing; olive sprig to left, AΘE to right; all but one leaf of olive sprig within incuse square, the totality within incuse circle. Starr Group IV, 142 var. (O122/R– [unlisted rev. die]) = Svoronos, Monnaies, pl. 9, 14 = Seltman 471 = SNG Berry 642 (same obv. die); HGC 4, 1617 corr. (Starr groups; same obv. die as illustration); SNG Copenhagen 30; Boston MFA 1602; Hunterian 10; Rhousopoulos 1979. Good VF, toned, slight granularity. Well centered on a broad flan. Very rare, fewer than 50 didrachms of this type (Starr Groups II–IV) known, of which only about a dozen remain in private hands.