Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 282. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $3000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLANDS off IONIA. Samos. Circa 408/4-366 BC. AR Tetradrachm (14.71 g, 12h). Hegesianax, magistrate. Facing lion's scalp / Forepart of bull right; branch behind, HGHSIANAX above, monogram below. Barron Class X, 130b (A59/P125 - this coin); Hecatomnus p. 106, 13 (same obv. die); SNG Copenhagen 1688. Good VF, attractively toned, well centered. ($3000)

Ex Hess-Leu 49 (27-28 April 1971), lot 214; Hermitage Museum Collection (Schlessinger 13, 4 February 1935), lot 1306.

This important seafaring polis on the island of the same name became an important cultural center during its long, tumultuous history. In 522 BC, it became part of the Persian Empire and took part in the Ionian Revolt in 499 BC. After the Persian Wars, it joined the Delian League in 478/7 BC, though it was soon absorbed into the Athenian Empire. In either 404 BC through the help of the Spartans, or 394 BC with a Persian victory over the Spartan fleet, Samos returned to the Persian sphere of influence and became part of an anti-Laconian Symmachy along with Ephesos, Rhodes, Knidos, Iasos, Kyzikos, Lampsakos, and Byzantion, all of whom produced silver coins on the prevailing Rhodian weight standard. The population of Samos was expelled and replaced by an Athenian cleruchy in 366 BC after Samos unsuccessfully opposed the Second Athenian League and was conquered by Timotheos. For the redating of Barron’s class X coinage, see Hecatomnus, pp. 110-113.