Extremely Rare Issue

CNG 99, Lot: 195. Estimate $500. Sold for $2200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TROAS, Assos. Circa 450/40-400 BC. AR Tetrobol (14mm, 2.63 g, 12h). Head of Athena right, wearing crested Attic helmet / Archaic cult statue of Athena standing left, holding filleted spear and distaff; rose to lower left. Jameson 2229 (same dies); G. Hirsch 258, lot 2208; Gorny & Mosch 108, lot 1234; cf. Pecunem 22, lot 83 (diobol). VF, darkly toned, light porosity. Extremely rare, four previously known: Jameson, two in CoinArchives, and one in the ANS (no. 1951.191.20).

The Jameson piece was attributed to Assos based on the close similarity of its types to a tetradrachm from that city in the BN (Traité II 2302, pl. CLXIII, 28). The types are also remarkably similar to the early bronzes of Ilium, but Bellinger apparently agreed with Jameson that it was not an issue of that city. The similarity of types among cities within a close proximity to one another is not unusual, but the difficulty of attribution is compounded by the absence of an ethnic on the present issue. Both Assos and Ilium placed their ethnic on their coin issues, of all denominations, so the fact that it is not on either of these tetrobol and diobol issues is perplexing. In any event, there are subtle differences in the depiction of Athena at both cities. At Ilium, Athena is presented in motion, visible in the flowing drapes of her lower chiton, while at Assos, Athena is presented rigidly erect, such that it is considered a representation of her statue rather than her corporeal form.