Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 443. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $13000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Uncertain. Circa 650-600 BC. EL Stater (14.30 gm). Milesian standard. Figural type. Forepart of roaring lion on left and male bust on right vis-à-vis, on a striated field / Two rough incuse square punches separated by a cleft. Unpublished in the standard references, but cf. Jonathan P. Rosen Collection (Münzen und Medaillen 72, 6 October 1987), lots 19 and 28 (Trite and Hekte, each with male bust only) for one reverse punch used on this coin as well as all the others in this group. VF, obverse double struck. Unique. ($5000)

GROUP of DIE-LINKED ELECTRUM

The following eight early electrum coins on the Milesian standard are linked by a single reverse punch which was employed to strike each of the coins. Although these coins display different designs and styles, the fact that they are all struck with the same reverse punch must indicate that they come from one mint. This remarkable group suggests several interesting observations.

Two coins were previously known from this issue, a trite and hekte in the Rosen collection (see references below). Both were struck from a single obverse die which was also used to strike the trite and hekte here, lots 445 and 446 below. The obverse of these trites and hektes displays a fine archaic male bust with long hair and beard (for comparanda in other art forms, cf. Weidauer pl. 25). Looking at the trites and hektes alone, we would have assumed that the male bust is the complete design. In fact, the male bust is only one portion of the design which was engraved on the die. As was frequently the case with early electrum, the same die was used to strike different denominations, and the die was cleverly engraved so that the smaller fractions would have what appeared to be a complete design even though it was not the entire design that was on the die. The discovery of the hemistater (lot 444 below), also struck from the same obverse die as the trites and hektes, now reveals the complete design. The bearded male is not alone but is face to face with a roaring lion. The same design of lion vis-à-vis male bust appears on the stater of the series, lot 443, which is struck from a different obverse die. This startling composition is apparently the first instance ever in which a human (or deity in human form) appears together with an animal on the same coin.

The next surprise is that coins which would appear to constitute three separate issues must all have been struck at a single mint within a limited time period. If it were not for the link provided by the reverse punch, we would think that lots 443-446 constitute one series, lots 447 and 448 a second series, and lot 449 (still a lion but of a distinctly different style from the previous lots) a third series. We know so little about the authorities responsible for early electrum that these linked coinages are difficult to interpret. Is a single issuing authority changing from one design to the other, or is one mint striking quite different coins at the same time on the instructions of different (private or governmental) issuing authorities? On the more general issue of attributing early electrum, we may wonder how many other early electrum coins of apparently unrelated designs or styles may actually be struck in a single mint and are waiting to be linked by the discovery of a shared punch.