Sale: CNG 64, Lot: 205. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 24 September 2003.  Sold For $2400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ATTICA, Athens. Circa 594-566 BC. AR Drachm (4.27 gm). "Wappenmünzen". Four-spoked wheel / Incuse square, divided diagonally. Svoronos, Athènes 59; SNG Copenhagen 5; Dewing 1562; Rosen 185. Attractively toned, near EF. Rare. ($1000)

Ex Robert Schonwalter Collection.

"Wappenmünzen" or "Blazon money" is a Germanic term used to describe the earliest coinage of Athens. Although an outdated term (modern scholars have convincingly demonstrated that Seltman's hypothesis that wappenmünzen types represent the coats-of-arms of Athens' leading families of the sixth century BC is incorrect), numismatic cataloguers have been hard-pressed to find a more suitable designation to describe the series.