Search in Feature Auction


CNG Bidding Platform

Information

Products and Services


Use Old Home Page

Feature Auction
CNG Feature Auction 115

Lot nuber 215

IONIA, Ephesos. Phanes. Circa 625-600 BC. EL Trite – Third Stater (14mm, 4.71 g).


CNG Feature Auction 115
Lot: 215.
 Estimated: $ 30 000

Greek, Electrum

Sold For $ 37 500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Go to Live

IONIA, Ephesos. Phanes. Circa 625-600 BC. EL Trite – Third Stater (14mm, 4.71 g). Stag grazing right, its dappled coat indicated by indentations on the body; ΦANEO[S] (retrograde) above / Two incuse squares flanking central incuse rectangle, each with raised intersecting lines within. Fischer-Bossert, Phanes 11b (O8/R20S&20L – this coin); Weidauer 40; SNG München 14; ACGC 54; GPCG p. 98, 3 = Kraay & Hirmer 585; Zhuyuetang 8. Lightly toned. Good VF. Well struck with a particularly clear inscription and stag. Very rare, with fewer than twenty trites of Phanes known.

From the M.J.W. Collection. Ex Berk BBS 159 (28 April 2008), lot 1.

The celebrated coins of Phanes – the first coins on which a legend appears – are known to be among the earliest of Greek coins, as a hemihekte (twelfth stater) of the issue was found in the famous foundation deposit of the temple of Artemis at Ephesos, built circa 550 BC. It is this find spot, along with the design of the grazing stag, that suggests Ephesos as the mint. If indeed a person, the mysterious "Phanes" named on this piece was likely an Ephesian treasury minister or a private individual wealthy enough to strike his own coinage. An alternative reading of the legend as "Phaneos" (light-bringer) has also been proposed, perhaps referring to an aspect of Artemis or her brother, Apollo.

The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 115 lots will be determined during the live online sale that will be held on 16-17 September 2020. This lot is in Session 1, which begins 16 September 2020 at 9 AM 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+).