CAPOLAVORO ASSOLUTO

[King John]

Gironzolando nel Web mi sono imbattuto su Pinterest nell'immagine di questa moneta coniata ad Abido: semplicemente spettacolare, di una finezza mai vista...

Purtroppo non so altro oltre a quello che è scritto sul sito dove l'ho pescata e precisamente:

Unique Masterpiece Greek Gold Artemis Stater from Abydos, Troas, c. 330 BC This coin, struck two years before Alexander the Great arrived in Abydos on his conquest of Persia, is a unique and very fine representation of Artemis, maybe the finest known.

https://it.pinterest.com/pin/189925309263126946/

Modificato 25 Aprile, 2017 da King John

[aemilianus253]

Passata in asta da Genevensis, se ben ricordo. 

[King John]

Adesso, aemilianus253 dice:

Passata in asta da Genevensis, se ben ricordo. 

e quanto avrà realizzato uno splendore del genere???

[aemilianus253]

Purtroppo non ricordo. Dovrei guardare nel catalogo, ammesso di avere anche i realizzi. Mi pare che questa fosse il pezzo in copertina e sicuramente non costava due lire! 

[King John]

penso proprio di no.... 

[Scudo1901]

L'ordine di grandezza di cui parla in questi casi sono le centinaia di migliaia di franchi svizzeri senza dubbio. Uno dei capolavori immortali dell'arte numismatica nei secoli. 

[King John]

Ho provato a cercarla su acsearch ma non la trovo...

[VALTERI]

Passata in Numismatica Genevensis S.A. VI , al n. 84 : non ho il catalogo

[Archestrato]

A quanto pare il lotto 84 dell'asta 6 di Numismatica Genevensis ha chiuso a ben un "milioncino" di franchi svizzeri, tondo tondo.

 

[Martin_Zilli]

Accidenti!?

4 minuti fa, Archestrato dice:

A quanto pare il lotto 84 dell'asta 6 di Numismatica Genevensis ha chiuso a ben un "milioncino" di franchi svizzeri, tondo tondo.

 

 

[King John]

9 minuti fa, Archestrato dice:

A quanto pare il lotto 84 dell'asta 6 di Numismatica Genevensis ha chiuso a ben un "milioncino" di franchi svizzeri, tondo tondo.

 

Beh, mi aspettavo qualcosa del genere: si tratta di un pezzo davvero eccezionale...

[King John]

Avete visto che sguardo ipnotizzante?

[legionario]

la pagina del catalogo Numismatica Genevensis 6 del 30/11-01/12 2010

Modificato 26 Aprile, 2017 da legionario

[King John]

Ecco la modella che ha posato per l'incisore di questa splendida moneta....

[VALTERI]

Trattenendoci ancora un poco ad Abydos e tra le sue monete auree ed uniche , un diverso  più antico esemplare dalla collezione Prospero , questo passato a soli 325.000 U.S. D.

Modificato 26 Aprile, 2017 da VALTERI

[King John]

Altro capolavoro ineguagliato dell'arte greca.

MACEDON, Amphipolis. 357/6 BC. AR Tetradrachm (26mm, 14.43 g, 7h). Head of Apollo facing slightly right, wearing laurel wreath, drapery around neck / AMΦ-IΠO-ΛIT-ΩN around raised linear square enclosing race torch; to inner right, small sphinx seated left; all within broad shallow incuse square. Lorber 42 (O23/R33) = Traité IV 1097 = G.E. Rizzo, Saggi Preliminari su L'Arte della Moneta nella Sicilia (Rome, 1938), p. 94, fig. 75, 4 = K. Regling, “Phigela, Klazomenai, Amphipolis,” ZfN 33 (1922), p. 75, 20. Good VF, attractively toned. A masterpiece of classical numismatic art. Extremely rare, only the second known from these dies, the other in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Münzkabinett (from the Löbbecke Collection).
It is rare in numismatic art that the quality of engraving approaches the artistic impression of major sculpture. The present coin, along with the few other known examples of the “Parthenon Group” within the Amphipolis coinage, represents perhaps our closest approach in numismatics to the finest art of classical Athens.
The Thracian city of Enna Hodoi (“Nine Roads”) on the Strymon River was conquered and re-founded by Athens in 437/6 and was re-named Amphipolis. The Athenian colonists were led by Perikles’ close friend Hagnon, son of Nikias. While Athens continued to issue coins that were the recognized standard trade currency of the eastern Mediterranean, with the traditional designs and style that had come to be widely accepted, the colony of Amphipolis was not so constrained by convention in the style of its coinage, and produced coins that come closest to representing in miniature the artistic style of Athenian sculpture of the period.
The coinage of Amphipolis has long been admired by numismatists. Catherine C. Lorber published her magisterial study of the city’s coinage in 1990, building upon the work of generations of numismatists, most notably the eminent Germans Kurt Regling and Willy Schwabacher. In her corpus, Lorber was able to publish a total of 112 known tetradrachms struck during the city’s autonomous period from 370/69-354/3 BC and to organize them chronologically with great precision.
The present coin falls into Lorber’s Parthenon Group (Group N), and is struck from her die combination 42, with obverse die 23 and reverse die 33. The only coin previously known from this die pairing is the Berlin specimen (Lorber 42a). One other coin is also known from the same obverse die, but a different reverse die: Lorber 43a = Leu 81 (16 May 2001), lot 158. That coin, also featured on the cover of Lorber's corpus, was described by the Leu cataloguer as “the most beautiful of all the facing-head tetradrachms of Amphipolis and one of the prettiest of all ancient Greek coins.”
The present coin, despite its serene beauty, emanates from a moment of great turmoil in Amphipolis. Philip II of Macedon declared war on the city early in 357 BC. The anti-Macedonian party, in desperation, dispatched a legation to Athens to ask for help. Athens refused the offer for reasons that are not entirely clear today. Philip promptly placed Amphipolis under siege and – aided by allies within the city – breached the walls and captured the city late in 357 BC. The coins of the Parthenon Group can be precisely dated to the time of these events (Lorber p. 52-53).
This series of Amphipolis’ coinage is called the Parthenon Group because the obverse head is inspired by the seated Apollo of the east frieze of the Parthenon (Lorber p. 20 and fig. 63). Lorber notes that the first two dies in the series (O20 and O21) are faithful to their sculptural prototype, but the following two dies (O22 and O23 – this obverse) are “freer and more individual” (Lorber p. 28). Lorber suggests that the reference on the coinage to a famous sculpture created by Phidias in the 430’s BC – harkening back to the city’s re-foundation by Perikles in 437/6 BC – reflects pro-Athenian feeling at a critical moment when Amphipolis desperately sought Athens’ military assistance. Philip, while he retained the Parthenon reference following his victory, introduced a subtle change to a “freer and more individual” style of Apollo head and at the same time changed the ethnic on the coinage from the Ionic form (AMΦIΠOΛITEΩN) to the Attic form (AMΦIΠOΛITΩN), reflecting the administrative language of the Macedonian kingdom and the language that Philip used on his royal coinage (Lorber p. 53).
This coin, one of 13 known tetradrachms of the Parthenon Group and one of only five in private ownership, represents the magnificent tradition of classical Athenian art, and, at the same time, reflects the rising power of Macedon.
We wish to thank Dr. Bernhard Weisser, of the Berlin Münzkabinett, for graciously enabling us to study the present coin in comparison with Berlin’s extraordinary collection of Amphipolis tetradrachms, including the only known die duplicate of this coin.

[VALTERI]

Altro tetradramma di Anfipoli della stessa tipologia , con un incisivo ritratto al diritto

[King John]

20 minuti fa, VALTERI dice:

Altro tetradramma di Anfipoli della stessa tipologia , con un incisivo ritratto al diritto

Straordinario...

[Ospite]

[Ospite]

Island off Thrace, Thasos, gold drachm, c. 380 BC  starting price 24.000 GBP  (grammi 3,93)

[apollonia]

Masterpiece by Kimon (Triton XI)

SICILY, Syracuse. Second Democracy. 466-405 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.44 g, 10h). Obverse die signed by Kimon. Struck circa 415-405 BC. Head of Arethusa facing slightly left, wearing ampyx inscribed K[IMO]N, single-pendant earring and necklace, sea-swept hair radiating outward; within her locks of hair, four dolphins: on the left, one swims downward while another is just emerging above, and on the right, one swims down toward another that is presenting from behind Arethusa’s neck / SURAK-OSIWN, charioteer (Arethusa) driving fast quadriga left, holding reins in both hands; above, Nike advancing right, preparing to crown charioteer with laurel wreath; below, stele lying on its side; in exergue, grain ear lying left. Tudeer 81 (dies 29/54); SNG ANS 288; Rizzo pl. XLVIII, 11; BMC 208; Gulbenkian 293; Kraay & Hirmer 123 (all from the same dies). EF, toned with underlying luster in the devices. Well centered and struck. Struck from fine dies by the Syracusan Dekadrachm master, Kimon.

[numa numa]

Il 25/4/2017 at 22:27, King John dice:

e quanto avrà realizzato uno splendore del genere???

Lascia stare King... non e' per comuni mortali (sigh)

[numa numa]

Il 3/5/2017 at 13:54, apollonia dice:

Masterpiece by Kimon (Triton XI)

SICILY, Syracuse. Second Democracy. 466-405 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.44 g, 10h). Obverse die signed by Kimon. Struck circa 415-405 BC. Head of Arethusa facing slightly left, wearing ampyx inscribed K[IMO]N, single-pendant earring and necklace, sea-swept hair radiating outward; within her locks of hair, four dolphins: on the left, one swims downward while another is just emerging above, and on the right, one swims down toward another that is presenting from behind Arethusa’s neck / SURAK-OSIWN, charioteer (Arethusa) driving fast quadriga left, holding reins in both hands; above, Nike advancing right, preparing to crown charioteer with laurel wreath; below, stele lying on its side; in exergue, grain ear lying left. Tudeer 81 (dies 29/54); SNG ANS 288; Rizzo pl. XLVIII, 11; BMC 208; Gulbenkian 293; Kraay & Hirmer 123 (all from the same dies). EF, toned with underlying luster in the devices. Well centered and struck. Struck from fine dies by the Syracusan Dekadrachm master, Kimon.

 

Questa emissione e' straordinaria

ma questo tipo in particolare e' il meno riuscito

la ninfa sembra raffigurata prima dell'inizio di una cura dimagrante

gli altri esemplari invece - se avete avuto la fortuna di tenerli in mano - semplicemente non sono di questo mondo ...

 

[King John]

Avete notato la somiglianza?

LARISSA: AR didrachm (5.95g), ca. 350-325 BC, S-2119, head of the nymph Larissa facing slightly left, with hair in ampyx / horse preparing to lie down, city name divided half above & half below the horse (strike 4, surface 3, fine style), NGC graded About Unc. Listed as "drachm" on the slab, but size & weight is clearly of the didrachm, also known as stater.
Estimate: USD 600 - 800

[numa numa]

somiglia ancora di piu' se la compari al conio piu' bello dell'Arethusa frontale di Cimone

Anche se ci sono piu' di 100 anni di distanza, piu' di 600 miglia e almeno tre zeri di differenza