Euboea, Eretria
Tetradrachm circa 160, AR 16.95 g. Draped bust of Artemis r., hair in korymbos, bow and quiver over her l. shoulder. Rev. ΕΡΕΤΡΙΕΩΝ Cow standing r., with filleted horns, head facing; in exergue, ΦΑΝΙΑΣ. All within wreath. Gillet 1177 (this coin). Thompson, ANSMN 5, p. 27, 2 and pl. VIII, 4 (this coin illustrated). Waggoner, ANSMN 25, 1980, p. 8 (this coin cited). Mørkholm, Early Hellenistic Coinage, pl. XLI, 612 var. (different magistrate). BCD Euboia 340 (this coin).
Extremely rare and among the finest specimens in private hands. A wonderful portrait
in the finest Hellenistic style, light iridescent tone, minor traces of die shift
on reverse, otherwise extremely fine

Ex Leu/M&M 28 May 1974, Kunstfreund, 241; Lanz 111, 2002, BCD, 340 and Nomos 3, 2011, 87 sales. From the Spina and Charles Gillet collections. From the Anthedon hoard of 1935 (IGCH 223).
A variety of coins were struck from archaic through Roman times on Euboea, an island off the eastern coast of the Greek mainland that, as its name suggests, was "a land rich in cows." Being so-named, it is no surprise that cows are a prominent badge on the coins of the island. Issues were produced at the cities of Chalkis, Eretria, Histiaia and Carystus, as well as by the Euboean League. BCD has observed that the cities tended to stop striking their independent coinages when the league coins were in production. Eretria was a prosperous coastal city located opposite the northernmost tip of Attica. It had two major phases of coinage. The first, from c.525 to 465 B.C., consists of tetradrachms and staters that show on their obverse a cow standing left, with its head reverted to receive a scratching from its left rear hoof. The reverses portray an octopus with the tips of its tentacles artfully curled. There was a degree of variety in the composition of these designs, and on the smallest fractional silver coins, obols and hemiobols, the obverse bore only a facing cow's head. This enchanting tetradrachm is one of the flagship coins of the second phase, which may have began c.180 B.C., about a generation after the island had been freed from Macedonian rule in 196 by the proclamation of T. Quinctius Flamininus (oddly enough, in 198 Flamininus had virtually destroyed Eretria in an effort to defeat the Macedonians within, taking with him many works of art as his share of the spoils). The style and fabric of these issues have matured considerably, and they represent some of the finest workmanship from the age of Hellenistic coinage. Artemis had a thriving cult nearby at Amarynthus, thus she is portrayed on the obverse. The reverse shows a laurel wreath in which a docile cow stands with its head facing the viewer. The fillets hanging from the cow’s head indicate it has been selected for sacrifice. This almost certainly is the case, for the worship of Artemis Amarysia locally had two aspects: a chthonic Artemis to whom defective or maimed sheep were offered, and Artemis Olympia, for whom bulls were sacrificed. This particular coin was part of the Anthedon hoard (ICGG 223) found in Boeotia in 1935. It is an important hoard that contained more than 25 silver coins, including four tetradrachms and one octobol of Chalcis, six tetradrachms and four octobols of Eretria, and ten New Style tetradrachms of Athens. The find was much discussed by those trying to establish absolute dates for the New Style coinage because it contained the first four issues of that series. Margaret Thompson was convinced that the Eretria tetradrachms in this hoard were struck in about 196, immediately after the city's liberation from Macedon, and based upon that presumption and this hoard she tied the start of the New Style coinage to 196/5 B.C. D.M. Lewis, who championed a 'low chronology' which down-dated Thompson's estimate by some 30 to 35 years (which is still the most widely held view), was not convinced that the Eretrian coins were stuck right after its liberation, and suggested that the Anthedon hoard was buried in about 161 B.C.