Sale: CNG 67, Lot: 570. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 September 2004.  Sold For $7000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ATTICA, Athens. Circa 545-520 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.75 gm). "Wappenmünzen." Facing gorgoneion / Facing panther head with paws, within incuse square. Svoronos, Athènes pl. 1, 69; cf. Seltman Group K, 316-327 (dies not recorded); Asyut 260 = Rosen 195 (this coin); SNG Copenhagen -. VF, porous, well centered on a full flan. Very rare. ($7500)

From the Garth R. Drewry Collection. Ex Jonathan P. Rosen Collection (Münzen und Medaillen 72, 6 October 1987), lot 397; Asyut Hoard, 260.

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