Sale: CNG 61, Lot: 717. Closing Date: Sep 25, 
2002. Estimate $1000  

IONIA, Persian Satraps. Ephesos(?). Circa 350-340 
BC. AR Tetradrachm (14.77 gm). Persian king 
kneeling right, holding bow in left hand, spear in 
right / Incuse relief map of the hinterland of 
Ephesos(?). A.E.M. Johnston, "The Earliest 
Preserved Greek Map: A New Ionian Coin Type," JHS 
(1967), 25 (dies not listed); Leo Mildenberg, 
"Money Supply under Artaxerxes III Ochus," in 
Studies in Memory of Martin Price, pl. 61, 81; BMC 
Ionia pg. 324, 3; Traité pl. 89, 8. Fine. Very 
rare. ($1000)
Johnston has interpreted this reverse design as a 
relief map of the hinterland of Ephesos, which would 
make it the earliest Greek map and first physical relief 
map known. On the right (north) are the mountains Tmolos 
and Messogis between the valleys of the Ca˙ster and 
Maeander, with three mountain ridges (Madranbaba Dagi, Karincali Dagi, and Akaba Tepesi) to the left. Johnston 
and Six suggest that the coins were probably struck 
under the Persian general Memnon at Ephesos, ca 336-334 BC, 
to pay his army after the captured of the city, but before 
his defeat by Alexander at Granicus in 334. Johnston's theory has been the subject of some doubt, most recently by 
Leo Mildenberg. 

Lot sold for $800, plus buyers fees.

Used by permission of Classical Numismatic Group, www.cngcoins.com.