Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 238. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Achaemenid Period. Circa 340-334 BC. AR Siglos (5.46 g, 3h). Persian king or hero in kneeling-running stance right, holding dagger and bow / Incuse relief map of the hinterland of Ephesos(?). Cf. A.E.M. Johnston, "The Earliest Preserved Greek Map: A New Ionian Coin Type," JHS (1967), Æ 1-2 (bronze denomnation); cf. L. Mildenberg, "Über das Münzwesen im Reich der Achämeniden," Vestigia Leonis, pp. 25-26 and pl. XII, 110 - XIII, 112; cf. Baldwin's 34 (13 October 2003), lot 25 (described as Carradice Type IV C; same obv. die). Good VF, trace of encrustation on reverse. Extremely rare. ($1000)

This siglos is noteworthy in its attribution and purpose. Babelon (Perses, 125-129) considered it an Achaemenid royal issue. The obverse, however, most notably the form of the kidaris, or crown, is stylistically unlike those normally found on the Persian king or hero, but is similar to the headgear of Persian officials depicted at Persepolis, and found on issues struck by satraps in western Asia Minor. Unlike those types, however, on which the Persian king or hero is holding a spear and bow, our coin depicts him holding the dagger and bow, a type found on late Carradice Type IV royal sigloi dated to circa 375-336 BC. The design of the reverse incuse parallels a series of contemporary tetradrachms and bronze coins (although no sigloi are recorded for this series) which, according to Johnston, depicts the earliest Greek map and first physical relief map known of the Ionian hinterland. Particularly noteworthy is the presence of an apparent grid pattern, similar to that which is illustrated in Johnston, pl. XI, 33.

Formerly, the tetradrachms were assigned to Ephesos on the sole evidence that this magistrate's name PUQAGORHS is also known for that city, though this is no longer so certain. The attribution to Ephesos led Six to suggest that this series was struck there on behalf of the Greek mercenary general Memnon to pay his troops deployed in northwestern Asia Minor to stave off the invasion of Alexander III of Macedon. Johnston likewise adopts this conclusion, though she admits she does so tentatively. Although Mildenberg disputes the finer points of Johnston's arguments regarding the use of the Persian king or hero as an obverse type for a specifically satrapal issue, he nevertheless place this issue in the same period, identifying the issue only as an as yet undetermined satrap-general.