Gemini III, January 9th, 2007



                  Lot # 187Estimate: US$750
                  IONIA. Priene. Silver drachm 



             



            IONIA. Priene. Silver drachm (4.04 gm). Facing bust of Athena 
            Parthenos, draped and wearing triple-crested helmet / ÐÑIH, Nike 
            advancing right, holding wreath in right hand and palm over left 
            shoulder, magistrate’s signature AÈHNO/ÐOËIÓ to right, meander 
            border. Unpublished. Good very fine. 

            Athena was the usual type of Priene’s civic coinage, advertising the 
            city’s principal claim to fame, a temple of Athena Polias dedicated 
            by Alexander the Great. The specific types of this drachm—a 
            charmingly naive frontal bust of Athena, paired with a Nike 
            reverse—are new to Priene’s silver coinage. The magistrate who 
            signed this issue bore a name that was prominent at Priene: at least 
            two men named Athenopolis are mentioned in inscriptions found at the 
            city, one a victorious wrestler, the other a priest of Dionysus. 






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  ... Lot 187 sold for high bid of $1400 [ $1610, or approx 1244.53 EUR, 821.1 GBP including the 15% buyers fee.] 


Re-used by permission of Harlan J Berk (www.harlanjberk.com) and
                         Freeman & Sear (www.freemanandsear.com)