Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 1926. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GREEK. THRACE, Byzantion. Lot of twenty AR Sigloi. All coins: Heifer standing left on dolphin / Quadripartite granulated mill-sail incuse punch. Average VF and better. An attractive group. LOT SOLD AS IS, NO RETURNS. Twenty (20) coins in lot. ($1000)

INTRO

In the early 7th century BC colonists from Megara in Greece founded the cily of Kalchedon on the east side of the Bosporos, When later colonists left Megara in 668 BC, the oracle at Delphi instructed them to settle opposite the city of the blind, meaning Kalchedon, the founders of which had overlooked the advantages of the site of Byzantion, on the west side of the Bosporos, which was destined to become the capital of a great empire. This late fourth century coinage of the two cities was evidently coordinated. The types reflect the geographical site of the two cities on either side of the Bosporos (meaning 'ox-ford' in Greek). On the coinage of Byzantion, a heifer standing on a dolphin indicates the city's maritime connections and control of the route into the Black Sea. The coins of Kalchedon display a bull on a com ear, reflecting the land-based prosperity of the city, which lacked the splendid harbor of Byzantion. The reverse in both cases is an old-fashioned incuse.