Sale: Nomos 10, Lot: 21. Estimate CHF20000.  Closing Date: Sunday, 17 May 2015.  Sold For CHF20000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MACEDON, Aineia. mid 4th century BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 25mm, 14.11 g 4). Head of the nymph Aineia to right, wearing wreath of leaves and a prominent triangular pendant earring. Rev. - - Bull standing to right, its head turned back to left. Struck from the same dies as CNG 67 (2004), 401 and Giessener M�nzhandlung 102 (2000), 133, otherwise unpublished. Extremely rare. The finest of five known examples, nicely centered and very well struck. Very slight traces of double striking, otherwise, extremely fine.

Ex Nomos 7, 15 May 2013, 37, and from the Spina Collection, ex Triton VIII, 11 January 2005, 104.

Aineia was a very minor city in the Chalkidike, which produced a very rare coinage of staters in the mid 4th century BC (it minted a slightly more abundant coinage of silver fractions in the 5th century as well as some bronze in the 4th century). These staters were apparently all struck from a single pair of dies and were unknown until a find of them appeared in the late 20th century. They are of particularly fine style and have been associated with the later staters from Lokris - though they are, in fact, closer to the profile drachms of the late 5th century from Larissa and the earlier staters of Stymphalos of c. 350. The single pendant earring is notable, as is the wreath the nymph wears; there are no traces of grain or fruits so the idea that this could be a goddess like Demeter seems unlikely. In fact, this is probably the head of a local fountain nymph, especially given the importance water had for the Greeks.