Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 305. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $135. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

DYNASTS of LYCIA, Uncertain. Circa 380-370 BC. AR Obol (0.56 g). Murex shell / Sea serpent (ketos?). Unpublished, but cf. Klein 606 and BMC Lycia 8 for an obol of Mithrapata with the same obverse type and style. VF, attractively toned, small piece broken off and professionally repaired. ($200)

While the similarities to the type of Mithrapata suggest an attribution to that dynast, all of his coins bear at least a portion of his name and there are no letters on this coin. As types tend to be transferred from dynast to dynast, it is possible that this issue is from a contemporary of Mithrapata. The sea serpent, though, is not present on any published specimen of a Lycian dynast, which suggests that this coin may not be from the dynasts' series at all.