Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 416. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $5500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PERSIA, Achaemenid Empire. Time of Artaxerxes I - Xerxes II. Circa 455-420 BC. AV Daric (8.40 g). Persian king or hero in kneeling-running stance right, holding dagger and bow / Incuse punch, in which is a lion's head facing downward. Cf. Carradice Type IV, Group A (pl. XIII, 32); Triton VIII, lot 567; CNG 69, 715; CNG 66, lot 731. VF. Extremely rare with design on the reverse die. ($3000)

A number of markings in the reverse dies of sigloi of this same Carradice type and group are known, including a left-turned lion's head (cf. BMC Arabia p. 163, 110ff, and Carradice, "The Dinar Hoard of Persian Sigloi," Essays Price, p. 71, 146-151). There are no published darics recorded with these markings, however, and this is apparently only the fifth known example. The significance of these designs or symbols is unknown.