Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 518. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SYRIA, Cyrrhestica, Bambyce (later Hieropolis). Abyaty. Circa 340-332 BC. AR Didrachm (8.41 gm, 11h). "[Hadad] and Ateh" in Aramaic, facing female bust, wearing necklace / "Abyaty" in Aramaic, high priest and driver, who hold reins, in quadriga right. Mildenberg, "A note on the coinage of Hierapolis Bambyce," Travaux Le Rider, 5 (this coin); Seyrig, "Le monnayage de Hieropolis de Syrie à l'epoque d'Alexandre," RN 1971, pl. 1, 4; Price, "More from the Memphis and the Syria 1989 hoard," Essays Carson-Jenkins, pg. 34, 16-17; BMC Syria -; SNG Copenhagen -; cf. SNG München 453. Good VF, toned, light scratches, obverse banker's mark, test cut on reverse. Very rare. ($2000)

From the Garth R. Drewry Collection. Ex Sotheby's (Zurich, 27-28 October 1993), lot 816; Numismatic Fine Arts XXV (29 November 1990), lot 185.

This remarkable coinage was struck by the last Achaemenid daynasts/priests of Bambyce, and spans the gap between the Achaemenid and Alexandrine issues. With the exception of the Atargatis type (see next lot), the types used were primarily copied from popular coins in circulation at the time. On this particular issue, we see the influence of the contemporary facing-head issues of Tarsos (which themselves were influenced by Kimonean Syracuse issues; see lots 508-509 above), and the quadriga type in use at Sidon.