MYSIA, Kyzikos. Circa 450-330 BC. EL Stater (18.5mm, 15.87 g).

Triton XXIV
Lot: 638. Estimated: $ 10 000

Greek, Coin-in-Hand Video, Electrum

Sold For $ 19 000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Go to Live

MYSIA, Kyzikos. Circa 450-330 BC. EL Stater (18.5mm, 15.87 g). Kerberos standing left on tunny left / Quadripartite incuse square. Von Fritze I 103; Greenwell 141; Boston MFA 1538 = Warren 1569; SNG BN –; BMC –; Gulbenkian –; Jameson 2555. Lightly toned. Near EF. Well centered. Extremely rare as a stater, one of only four in CoinArchives.

From the Jonathan P. Rosen Collection. Ex Roma XII (29 September 2016), lot 289 (hammer £18,000); David Walsh Collection (Numismatica Ars Classica 77, 26 May 2014), lot 55 (hammer 21,000 CHF).

This rare style depicts Kerberos, the guardian of the entrance to the Underworld and the monstrous offspring of Echidna, the mother of all monsters, and Typhon, the deadliest monster of Greek mythology. Kerberos is the focus of the last of the Twelve Labors of Herakles and is also central to the story of Orpheus’s journey to the Underworld to retrieve his love Eurydike. While a well known part of Greek mythology, depictions of Kerberos in coinage are rare, found only on coins minted in this period by Epeiros, Cumae, and Kyzikos. Due to this rarity, the type serves as an incredibly beautiful example of an important subject of Greek mythology.

The final winners of all Triton XXIV lots will be determined during the live online sale that will be held on 19-20 January 2021. This lot is in Session Two, which begins 19 January 2021 at 2 PM ET.

Winning bids are subject to a 20% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 22.50% for all others.

We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports Mozilla Firefox (version 60+) and Chrome (version 67+).