GREEK COINS
CIMMERIAN BOSPOROS
Pantikapaion. Circa 340 BC. Stater (Gold, 18mm, 9.17 g 12). Head of Pan to left, with a pointed beard, a goat’s ear and a pug nose, wearing an ivy wreath. Rev. Π - Α - Ν Griffin prancing on a grain ear to left, his head facing and holding a spear in his jaws (its shaft forming the crossbar of the Α), and with his right forepaw raised. Franke/Marathaki 138. Gulbenkian 586. Kraay/Hirmer 441. Kunstfreund 188 ( this coin ). K. Regling, ¨Der griechische Goldschatz von Prinkipo¨, ZfN XLI (1931), 170. SNG BM 864 var. Extremely rare. A spectacular example of great power and beauty. Good extremely fine. From the Black Sea Collection, ex Leu 83, 6 May 2002, 134, Sotheby’s London, 5 July 1995, 37 and from the collection of C. Gillet, Kunstfreund, Bank Leu/Münzen und Medaillen, 28 May 1974, 188.
The gold issues of Pantikapaion are a fascinating series, even a romantic one. The city was where the gold from the steppes in the East reached the Greek world, but mystery shrouded its origins. It was said to be hoarded by griffins from which it was stolen by intrepid adventurers. In fact, the gold came from sources far to the east, where the fossilized bones of a dinosaur, the protoceratops, undoubtedly gave rise to the myth of the griffin. The grain ear beneath the creature refers to another source of Pantikapaion’s great wealth. The style of the 4th century coinage of Pantikapaion is particularly outstanding, a true blend between Greek and Skythian - with the wild flamboyance of the art of the steppes successfully mingled with the sophistication of Classical Greece. The amazing jewelry and gold and silver vessels that have been found in the tombs of southern Russia, with many treasures now in the Hermitage, are world-renowned. The workmanship of the contemporary and slightly later gold and silver coinage of Pantikapaion shares fully in this amazing florescence of style, which was unparalleled anywhere else in the Greek world. The vast supernatural power that appears in the head of Pan on this coin, combined with the wild strength of the griffin on the reverse, fully shows the outstanding ability of the artist who created the dies used to strike it. Pantikapaion’s coins can in no way be compared to the serene and noble beauty of those from Syracuse or Olympia; rather, they show us another world of almost frightening beauty.