| Numismatica Ars Classica > Summer Sale 2025 | Auction date: 30 July 2025 |
| Lot number: 155 Price realized: 7,500 CHF (Approx. 9,289 USD / 8,062 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: Gela Didrachm circa 440, AR 22 mm, 8.48 g. IMERAION Youth dismounting from horse prancing l. Rev. ΣOTHR The nymph Himera sacrificing over altar. Giacosa, L'uomo e il cavallo, 29. AMB 303. Schwabacher 1 and pl. 9, 1 (this obverse die). Very rare. Old cabinet tone and very fine Ex Sternberg sale 18, 1986, 33. Privately purchased from Tradart at TEFAF in 2011. Estimate: 1500 CHF |  |
Match 1:
| Numismatica Ars Classica > Autumn Sale 2025 | Auction date: 9 November 2025 |
| Lot number: 2294 Price realized: This lot is for sale in an upcoming auction - Bid on this lot  | |
| Lot description: Elis, Olympia Stater circa 440, AR, 22 mm, 12.2 g. Eagle flying r., tearing at hare held in talons. Rev. F - A Winged thunderbolt within incuse circle. BCD Olympia 36 (this obverse die). Seltman –, cf. 67 (AN/unlisted reverse die.). HGC 5, 304. Rare. Superb old cabinet tone and good very fine / about extremely fine Ex New York sale XXVII, 2012, Prospero (Richard Seifert, 1910-2001), 387 and A.H. Baldwin's Fixed Price List Winter 2017, 21. Privately purchased from Spink on 15th December 1986. Estimate: 2500 CHF |  |
Match 2:
| Numismatica Ars Classica > Auction 158 | Auction date: 5 November 2025 |
| Lot number: 69 Price realized: 26,000 CHF (Approx. 32,130 USD / 27,960 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: Islands off Thrace, Samothrace Didrachm circa 280, AR 22 mm, 7.41 g. Head of Athena r., wearing Corinthian helmet decorated with coiled snake. Rev. ΣAMO – MHTPONA Cybele seated l., holding phiale and sceptre; under the throne, lion seated l. BMC 1. SNG Lockett 1212 (these dies). Weber 2491 (this coin). Jameson 2019 (this coin). SNG Copenhagen 992 var. (Athena l.). Zhuyuetang 41 (this coin). Very rare and in exceptional condition for the issue, undoubtedly among the finest specimens known. Light iridescent tone, minor marks and a metal flaw on obverse, otherwise extremely fine Ex Schulman 231, 1958, 3654 and Jean Vinchon 26 April 1999, 122 sales. From the Imhoof-Blumer, Weber and Jameson collections. Samothrace, an island located off the Aegean coast of Thrace, was said to have gained its name from early settlement by Thracians and Greek exiles from the island of Samos around 700 BC. Together, the Samian and Thracian inhabitants of the island worshipped a variety of chthonic deities described in the Greek sources as the Cabeiri or the Great Gods as part of a mystery religion. The foundation of the cult of the Great Gods was sometimes attributed to a local pair of heroes named Dardanus and Iasion, who were equated with the Dioscuri. A central figure of the Samothracian Great Gods was known by the secret name of Axieros and given the title of Great Mother. She was the powerful mistress of the wild mountains, and sacrifice was made to her on coloured porphyry outcroppings. Her power was also believed to be found in veins of magnetic iron on the island, which initiates into her mysteries fashioned into rings as a sign of identification. As the Great Mother, Axieros of Samothrace was frequently conflated with Cybele, the widely known Great Mother of the Phrygians, who was recognized in many Greek pantheons before the fourth century BC. Unlike the famous Eleusinian mysteries, entry into the mysteries of the Great Gods of Samothrace was open to anyone (male, female, adult, child, rich, poor, free, enslaved) who could be present at the sanctuary for the rites of initiation. Due to its relative proximity to coastal Macedonia, the mysteries came to be patronized by the Macedonian kings of the late fifth and fourth centuries BC. Indeed, Philip II is said to have met Olympias, his future wife and the mother of Alexander the Great, while they were being initiated into the Samothracian mysteries. Philip II and Alexander the Great increased the beauty and fame of the sanctuary by commissioning the erection of the Temenos building and the sanctuary's Main Altar, respectively. The sanctuary's Hieron and its Doric monument were commissioned by Alexander's immediate successors, his half-brother Philip III Arrhidaeus, and his infant son, Alexander IV. This close involvement of the last Argead kings of Macedonia in monumental construction at the Samothracian shrine set a precedent for subsequent Hellenistic monarchs, especially the rival Antigonid and Ptolemaic dynasties, who competed in financing new monuments and buildings in the third century BC. This rare didrachm depicts the Great Mother on the reverse, while featuring the head of Athena on the obverse. The latter is derived from contemporary Macedonian staters following types first popularized for the imperial coinage of Alexander the Great. The Samothracian issue was probably struck in the 280s BC, when Lysimachus, Alexander's general-turned-king, had begun construction of the Rotunda at the sanctuary. This building was dedicated to his wife, the Ptolemaic princess Arsinoe II. Its construction may have been financed by coins such as this. Lysimachus, who was killed in battle in 281 BC, probably did not live see the completion of the Rotunda, which subsequently became an important center of Ptolemaic dedications under Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the brother and later husband of the widowed Arsinoe II. Estimate: 10000 CHF |  |
Match 3:
| Numismatica Ars Classica > Summer Sale 2025 | Auction date: 30 July 2025 |
| Lot number: 483 Price realized: 6,000 CHF (Approx. 7,431 USD / 6,450 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: Elis, Olympia Stater, unsigned by DA, Zeus mint 93rd Olympiad circa 408, AR 22 mm, 11.91 g. Head of eagle with piercing eye l.; under its beak large ivy leaf. Rev. Winged thunderbolt, olive sprigs to r. and l. Seltman, Olympia 156. SNG Delepierre 2107 (this obverse die). BCD Olympia 77 (this obverse die). Old cabinet tone and very fine Ex Glendining 7 March 1957, 213; LHS 102, 2016 and Gemini VII, 2011, 55 sales. Privately purchased from Superior Stamp & Coin stock, December 1977. Estimate: 2000 CHF |  |
Match 4:
| Numismatica Ars Classica > Autumn Sale 2025 | Auction date: 9 November 2025 |
| Lot number: 2600 Price realized: This lot is for sale in an upcoming auction - Bid on this lot | |
| Lot description: Cyprus, Paphus. Pny (...), circa 500-480 Fragment of siglos circa 500-480, AR, 22 mm, 5.88 g. pu in Cypriot characters Bull standing l. Rev. Head of eagle l.; above, [palmettae] and below, guilloche pattern. All within incuse square. Traité II 1281, pl. CXXXIII, 20. BMC 6, pl. VII, 6. Tziambazis 75 (Pnytos II). Very rare. Old cabinet tone and about extremely fine Ex Lanz 48, 1989, 370 and NAC 106, 2018, 300 sales. From the collection of a Discerning collector. Estimate: 500 CHF |  |
Match 5:
| Numismatica Ars Classica > Auction 158 | Auction date: 5 November 2025 |
| Lot number: 82 Price realized: 11,000 CHF (Approx. 13,594 USD / 11,829 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: Thessaly, Kierion Stater circa 350, AR 25 mm, 11.37 g. Laureate head of Zeus r. Rev. [ΚΙΕΡΙΕΙΩΝ] Youthful Asclepius seated l. on rock, holding long sceptre in his l. hand and resting his r. on his knee; in l. field, tree entwined by a serpent. Traité IV, 508 and pl. CCLXXXIX, 21 (these dies). SNG Lewis 574 (these dies). BCD Thessaly I, 1071 (this coin). Zhuyuetang 23 (this coin). Exceedingly rare, only one of four specimens known. An attractive portrait of fine Hellenistic style and a pleasant old cabinet tone. Surface somewhat porous, otherwise very fine / fine Ex CNG sale 57, 2001, 282 Greek mytho-history held that the site of Kierion was originally settled by Aeolian Greeks who established a city there named Arne after a nearby river-nymph. The Arneans were subsequently driven out of their city by the arrival of the Thessalians, a Dorian Greek people associated with the sons of Heracles. The dispossessed Aeolians fled southwards and settled in the region Boeotia where they became the Boeotians of historical times. The Thessalians, however, took over Arne for themselves, but gave it a new name, Kierion. This extremely rare coin is one of only four staters known to have survived from antiquity down to modern times. On the obverse it features Zeus, the father of Heracles and therefore ultimate divine ancestor of the Dorian Thessalians. The reverse, however, depicts the healing-god Asclepius with his sacred serpent entwining a tree before him. While this and similar representations of the snake informed later Christian images of the serpent tempting Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden, the Asclepian snake was no devil. Instead, at healing sanctuaries called Asclepieia, the sick and injured were encouraged to sleep in rooms where sacred snakes slithered about so that they could inspire dreams from the god that would reveal the proper cure. The name of the Thessalian city was used as the title for a 1968 Greek film noir directed by Dimos Theos that was controversial at the time for its criticism of the ruling Greek military junta. The film Kierion was banned from being shown in Greece until 1974, after the junta had fallen from power. Estimate: 10000 CHF |  |
