Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 399. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $6000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Ephesos. Phanes. Circa 625-600 BC. EL Sixth Stater ­ Hekte (2.36 gm). Forepart of stag right, head reverted; pentagram to right / Incuse square punch with raised lines within. Cf. Weidauer 35 = Robinson, Electrum, pl. XXIX, 3B = Traité pl. II, 18 = BMC Ionia pg. 47, 4 (type left with three pellets before); Boston MFA -; SNG von Aulock -. Good VF. Extremely rare, one of only eight known hektes of Phanes, unique with the pentagram. ($5000)

The Coinage of Phanes

The celebrated coins of Phanes are known to be amongst the earliest of Greek coins, for a hemihekte of the issue was found in the famous foundation deposit of the temple of Artemis at Ephesos. It is this find spot, along with the design of the grazing stag (an animal associated with Artemis), that has suggested Ephesos as the mint.

The Phanes coinage, as presently known, consists of seven denominations, from stater down to 1/96 stater, with some denominations occurring in different varieties (the stag facing in different directions and sometimes associated with the symbol of a pentagram or a triad of pellets). Only the two largest denominations bear the name of Phanes. The three known staters carry the legend FANEOS EMI SHMA (or similar) (“I am the badge of Phanes”), and the four known trites (third staters) bear just the name FANEOS (“Of Phanes”). The use of a personal name at this early point in the development of coinage is instructive. We know from these coins that the responsibility for the issue was personal ­ whether the issuer was an official or a private individual ­ rather than collective (the citizenry as a whole).

Despite the absence of a legend on the smaller denominations, the whole series is linked beyond doubt by the consistent type of the stag, by the common weight standard, and by the occasional use of the same reverse punch on different denominations within the series.

Apart from the more frequently encountered 1/24 stater, all the denominations are very rare, each known by only a handful of examples. The last stater to be sold brought CHF 480,000 in the 2000 Tkalec auction, and the last trite brought $56,000 in CNG auction 66. This is the first occasion that four different denominations have appeared together in one sale.