416, Lot: 241. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Uncertain. Circa 600-550 BC. EL Trite – Third Stater (12.5mm, 4.71 g). Lydo-Milesian standard. Facing head of lion or panther within triangular incuse on a raised area / Two square punches with raised lines within. Weidauer 158–9; SNG von Aulock –; Boston MFA –; Traité I 28; Triton XI, lot 248; CNG 91, lot 301. VF, light marks, area of weak strike on obverse. Extremely rare denomination, much rarer than the hekte and hemihekte, only four in CoinArchives.

Ex G. Hirsch 263 (24 September 2009), lot 2520.

This trite is part of an electrum series consisting of staters, trites, hektes, hemihektes, and twenty-fourth staters (cf. Weidauer 156-65). Miletos and Samos have been proposed as the possible mint.