Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 346. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $5500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CYCLADES, Andros(?). Circa 525 BC. AR Stater (12.09 gm). Amphora / Square incuse divided into six triangular segments. Seltman Group A, - (A3/P2; unlisted die combination; Athens Pre-Solonian Mint); BMC Crete pg. 90, 14 (same obverse die; Karthaia in Kios); SNG Copenhagen -; Warren 964 (same obverse die); Münzen und Medaillen 76 (19-20 September 1991), lot 714. VF. Extremely rare. ($5000)

The attribution of this type has long been controversial. Seltman, followed by the catalogers of Kunstfreund, attributed the type as the very first issue of Athens, struck on the Aeginetan rather than the Attic standard. Similar staters which feature the amphora with an added dolphin have been attributed to Karthaia in Keos (BMC Crete pg. 90, 17), and the present type has sometimes been attributed to that island. An attribution to Andros, which employed the amphora as a type on its later coinage, seems more likely but remains uncertain. The island was famous for its wine, to which all its coin types relate.