Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1065. Estimate $4000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $3000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PERSIA, Achaemenid Empire. Time of Artaxerxes I - Xerxes II. Circa 455-420 BC. AV Daric (8.29 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 (without design on reverse); CNG 66, lot 731; Triton VIII, lot 567; CNG 69, lot 715; CNG 70, lot 416 (all struck fromthe same dies). Good VF. Extremely rare with design on the reverse die. ($4000)

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 110ff, and Carradice, "The Dinar Hoard of Persian Sigloi," Essays Price, p. 71, 146-151). There are no darics published with a design on the reverse, however, nor is there a downward (or right) facing lion's head type among the sigloi. The significance of these designs or symbols is unknown.