Maison Palombo Geneve

Auction 17  –  20 October 2018

Maison Palombo Geneve, Auction 17

Ancient and World Coins and Medals

Sa, 20.10.2018, from 10:30 AM CEST
The auction is closed.

Description

Thrace - Abdère Statère (c. 390 av. J. C.) Rarissime dans cette qualité - Parfaitement centré. Probablement le plus bel exemplaire connu. Exemplaire de la vente Giessener Münzhandlung 44 du 3 avril 1989, N°148 et de la collection Abecassis vente Leu 81 du 16 mai 2001, N°127 Exemplaire illustrant le Lorber. 12.72g - May 313 - Lorber, Amphipolis, p. 176, d (cet exemplaire) Superbe à FDC - CHOICE AU Almost opposite the island of Thasos, on the coast of Thrace, Abdera was established in 541 BC by citizens of Teos (south-west of İzmir), who were fleeing Ionia invaded by the Persians. Among the city’s famous citizens, one finds Demokritos (the ‘laughing philosopher’) and the sophist Protagoras. Griffins (facing right) were depicted on the coinage of their lost home-city, which explains the choice of the iconography for the coinage of Abdera. These superb coins were issued after the failed revolt against Athens in 411 BC, not long before the exhaustion of the prolific silver mines of Thrace and a few years before the Abderan army was decimated by the Triballoi in 375 BC. The city introduced a series of coins – such as this one – the reverse of which bore the name of the annual magistrate, who had the choice of its type. In this case, the magistrate Malpegoras chose a pun on his own name, with a reference to dance. The Greek verb for “celebrating with dance and song” gave her name to Melpomene (the muse of chorus) and the graceful woman on the reverse is one of a company (a chorus in Greek) of singers and dancers, accompanied by the harp or the flute. The name of the dance, kalathiskos, came from the dancers’ headgear – named kalathiskoi (“little wicker baskets”). It was performed during the Spartan pastoral festival of Apollo Karneios (Apollo – when his lover the Arcanian seer Carneus was killed – struck the Dorians with plague, and they established a cult to the god to propitiate him), and this coin shows clearly the dancer’s headdress shaped like a modius.

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Price realized 32'000 CHF
Starting price 25'000 CHF
Estimate 30'000 CHF
The auction is closed.
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