Sale: CNG 67, Lot: 401. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 September 2004.  Sold For $8500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MACEDON, Aineia. Circa 4th century BC. AR Tetradrachm (13.61 gm). Wreathed head of a nymph right / Bull standing right, head facing. AMNG III -; BMC Macedonia -; SNG ANS -; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG Lockett -; SNG Ashmolean -; Gulbenkian -; Pozzi -; Weber -; McClean -; Giessener Münzhandlung 102 (24 May 2000), lot 133 (same dies). Good VF, light porosity, small punch in center of reverse, perfectly centered. Extremely rare, only the second recorded example. ($5000)

Aineia (mod. Nea Michaniona) was located on the north-east coast of the Chalkidike. It was a comparatively obscure place in ancient times, occupied from the Archaic through the Hellenistic periods. Some fine burial mounds from the city have produced gold treasures, and the city is attested in Athenian fiscal documents. According to legend it was founded by Trojans, who named it after the famous Trojan hero, Aineias (Aeneas). Today the city is virtually unknown to numismatists due to the great rarity of its coinage.

The reason this impressive silver tetradrachm was issued is not known, though by its style and fabric it can be dated to the middle of the fourth century BC. Its designs were clearly inspired by existing Greek coin types, though it does distinguish itself with some local flare. The head of the nymph on the obverse, wreathed in grain, is seemingly based upon the prolific issues of staters of Lokris in central Greece, which often circulated in northern Greece. The reverse is perhaps inspired by the standard issues of Ainos, situated on the occidental coast of Thrace. The reverses of the tetradrachms of both Aineia and Ainos are dominated by a lone standing animal - on the former a cow with its head reverted, on the latter a goat - and the ethnics on both coinages are arranged prominently in the field above the animal, although the longer legend here required that it continue downward on the right and terminate in the exergue.