CNG 108, Lot: 252. Estimate $300. Sold for $575. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ASIA MINOR, Uncertain. 5th century BC. AR Twelfth Stater – Diobol(?) (9mm, 1.16 g, 6h). Head of bull right within dotted linear square border / Gorgoneion facing within incuse square. Cf. CNG E-174, lot 59 (sixth stater – hemidrachm[?]); otherwise unpublished. VF, lightly toned, slightly granular. Extremely rare.

This type is unpublished, but similar pieces are known for Abydos and Kebren in the Troad (and also possibly Gergis; see Triton XVI, lot 437), where the obverse features the civic badge of the city (the eagle at Abydos, and the ram at Kebren) and the reverse has a facing gorgoneion in an incuse square. The style of the gorgoneion here is also consistent with these other issues. If the coin is another issue from Troas, two cities stand as possibilities, Assos and Lamponeia, as both cities used a bull’s head as a civic badge on their coinage. However, the motifs here are fairly common in the 5th century BC, and both Assos and Lamponeia always depict the bull’s head as facing, not left or right, so the attribution to either is speculative.