Heretofore Unknown Sphinx

Sale: Triton X, Lot: 324. Estimate $10000.  Closing Date: Monday, 8 January 2007.  Sold For $6000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Uncertain. Circa 600 BC. EL Fraction (4.15 g). Uncertain standard. Figural type. Sphinx seated right; uncertain object (amphora or kantharos?) to right / Tripartite square; the upper incuse with a vertical line and pellet, the lower left with ‘A’-shaped pattern, the lower right with two parallel horizontal bars. Unpublished. Good VF. Unique.

The sphinx of the obverse type closely resembles those on early electrum of Chios (see Hardwick, Chios pl. XIII, 1-2; Mavrogordato pl. I, 6; and SNG Kayhan 616). None of these issues bear an object to the right of the sphinx, however, and the weight of this specimen does not conform to either weight standard used during the early periods of Chian minting (Chian and Milesian).