Sale: CNG 66, Lot: 731. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2004.  Sold For $5000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PERSIA. Achaemenid Empire. Time of Artaxerxes I - Xerxes II. Circa 455-420 BC. AV Daric (8.30 gm). Persian king or hero in kneeling/running stance right, holding dagger and bow / Incuse punch, in which is a lion's head facing downward. Cf. Carradice Type IV, Group A (pl. XIII, 32). EF. Unpublished with design on the reverse die. ($5000)

A number of markings in the reverse dies of sigloi of this same Carradice type and group are known, including a left-turned lion's head (cf. BMC Arabia pg. 163, 110ff, and Carradice, "The Dinar Hoard of Persian Sigloi," Essays Price, pg. 71, 146-151). There are no darics recorded with these markings, however, nor is there a downward (or right) facing lion's head type among the sigloi. The significance of these designs or symbols is unknown. Interestingly, the following coin was struck from the same reverse punch, but the lion's head has apparently been erased from the die.