Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 723. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $1000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Ephesus. Antinoüs, favorite of Hadrian. Died 130 AD. Æ 28mm (14.79 gm, 6h). HRWC [ANTIN]OOC, bare-headed and draped bust right / EFECIWN ANDROKLOC, Antinoüs, as Androclus of Athens, walking right, holding spear over shoulder in left hand, land holding dead boar right; a tree behind him. Blum pg. 41, 1; BMC Ionia pg.78, 232; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG von Aulock 1886 (this coin). Near VF, dark brown patina, light smoothing (since it left the von Aulock collection). An important mythological type. Rare. ($750)

From the David A. Dowdy Collection. Ex Giessener Münzhandlung 28 (2-3 February 1984), lot 3551; Münzen und Medaillen 52 (19-20 June 1975), lot 649; von Aulock Collection, 1886.

When the Delphic Oracle did not select Androclus to succeed his father Codrus as king of, the young man migrated with his followers to Ionia. There, according to prophecy, a wild boar and a fish would lead him to the site where he would found a new city. While Androclus cooked a fish on an open fire, sparks ignited the nearby bushes. A wild boar, hiding in the bushes and frightened by the fire, ran out. Androclus slew the boar and founded the city of Ephesus on the site.

See lot 715 for a note on the life and coinage of Antinoüs.