Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1607. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CONTORNIATE, Charioteer series. Late 4th century AD. Æ Contorniate (39mm, 27.80 g, 12h). Laureate and cuirassed half-length bust of charioteer right, holding whip in right hand, left hand holding rein of horse, the head of which to right; helmet in left field / Bacchus reclining right in biga drawn by panthers left; to right, cupid flying left, holding grape bunch; to left, satyr standing right, holding a pedum; two maenads in background; in exergue, rhyton, pedum, satyr mask, grape bunch, Selinos mask, and amphora. Alföldi, Kontorniat, 498 = Alföldi, Die Kontorniaten (Budapest and Liepzig, 1943) 350 (this coin); cf. Sachero 39 (for rev. type); cf. Tocci 39/22 (obv./rev. type). VF, brown patina with spots of green and red, minor roughness, some smoothing. Unique variety, this the sole example cataloged by Alföldi. ($2000)

From the John F. Sullivan Collection. Ex A. Hess (28 November 1912), lot 620; M. Martinetti Collection (Sambon, 18 November 1907), lot 3135.