Unique Gergis Hemidrachm

CNG 102, Lot: 398. Estimate $750. Sold for $3500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TROAS, Gergis. Circa 420-400 BC. AR Hemidrachm(?) (11mm, 1.92 g, 6h). Laureate head of Apollo facing slightly right / Griffin seated right; ΓEP-ΓIΣI-O-N around; all within incuse square. Unpublished, but cf. CNG E-170, lot 70, and G. Hirsch 249, lot 1419, for small fractions with the same types. Good VF, toned, minor porosity. Unique.

See also CNG 73, lot 300 for a similar issue, but with a sphinx seated on the reverse. Lorenzo Lazzarini has published a paper on the early coinage of Gergis in the forthcoming festschrift to G. Gorini. In correspondence, he notes that this coin was unknown to him, but that it is likely dated circa 420-400 BC, just prior to the silver with sphinx reverse types, and was an issue connected to the Apolline cult present in the city. He will integrate this issue into the forthcoming study he is preparing on the mints of the Troad.