Emissioni in elettro di Abido nella Troade

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Salve

Nella recente discussione su un mio bronzetto di Sesto in Tracia è stata citata Abido, la città che la fronteggia sul lato asiatico con la quale condivide il mito di Ero e Leandro. Abido è anche nota in quanto sede di una zecca molto prolifica: per esempio, anche se l’attribuzione dev’essere fatta con cautela, il Price pubblica 90 emissioni tra dramme e stateri per Alessandro Magno, 24 in suo nome per Filippo III Arrideo e 5 in suo nome per Lisimaco nel periodo c. 328-c. 297 a. C. Ad Abido si attribuiscono anche stateri e frazioni di statere in elettro, coniati attorno al 500 a. C.

Statere NAC 88.

Greek Coins 
Troas, Abydus (?) 
Stater circa 500, EL 14.04 g. Eagle standing l., with closed wings, looking backwards. Rev. Quadripartite incuse punch with irregular surfaces. BMC Ionia pl. I, 23 = Traité I, pl. VIII, 16. Boston 1808 (these dies). Of the highest rarity, apparently only the third specimen known and the only one in private hands. A magnificent representation of superb Archaic style, minor marks on obverse field, otherwise extremely fine From a Swiss private collection. Privately purchased in 1988.

As the animal-familiar of Zeus, the eagle makes numerous appearances on Greek coins, yet it seldom occurs as a standalone design with the bird in a distinctive pose, such on this stater. Like so many electrum coins of Asia Minor, this piece bears no inscription and its reverse is struck with a roughened quadripartite incuse square of the mill sail type. In most respects it is similar to the products of Cyzicus, and to the trained eye it might come as no surprise if – its extreme rarity aside – the eagle was perched upon a tunny.
This type is illustrated in the British Museum catalogue of Ionia (pl. I, no. 23), where Head includes it among the unspecified early electrum pieces of that region, though he makes the suggestion that it may have been issued at Abydus. Svoronos favoured a Northern Greek attribution, and thus included it (pl. IX, 1) in his work on Macedonian coins; he also discusses other attributions, such as Jameson’s suggestion of Abydus or Cyme. Kraay (ACGC no. 75) favoured Abydus and went further still by includes it among the coinages he ascribes to the ‘Ionian Revolt’ against Persia, thus dating it to c.500 B.C. For his views on that coinage, see lot 423.

 

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Altro esemplare dello statere precedente battuto con gli stessi conî.

Obverse: Eagle, wings closed, standing to left on beaded line, head to right. Feathers indicated by dots. Reverse: Irregular quadripartite incuse square.

Provenance

By date unknown: Canon Greenwell Collection; July 1902: acquired from Canon Greenwell Collection by Edward Perry Warren (Regling, Die Griechischen Münzen der Sammlung Warren, no. 1737); September 1904: purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren

Credit Line: Henry Lillie Pierce Fund

Greek, Late Archaic Period, 498–494 B.C.

Mint: Abydos, Troas (Ionian Revolt)

Catalogue Raisonné: Brett, Greek Coins (MFA), no. 1808.

Dimensions: Diameter: 18 mm. Weight: 14.09 gm.

Accession Number: 04.1565

Medium or Technique: Electrum

 

Da http://educators.mfa.org/ancient/stater-ionian-revolt-eagle-2051

 

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Statere della Roma Numismatics 12.

Troas, Abydos EL Stater. Circa 520-500 BC. Milesian standard. Eagle with closed wings standing to left, head reverted, dolphin in left field, floral tendril to right; all within circular border / Incuse punch. Head, Historia Numorum, p. 538; Head, 'Metrological Notes on Ancient Electrum Coins' in NC 1875, p.275, pl. VII, 7 (same dies). 14.16g, 19mm. Extremely Fine. Extremely Rare, apparently the second known example and more complete than the example published by Head in 1875. Of significant numismatic importance, and perhaps the earliest coinage of Abydos.

Abydos was first mentioned in the Iliad among the catalogue of Trojan allies. It was initially probably a Thracian town, as Strabo relates, but it was afterwards colonized by Milesians, with the consent of Gyges, king of Lydia, around 700 BC. 
The city was under the control of a pro-Persian tyrant, Daphnis, in the 520s, and was directly occupied by the Persians in 514. Abydos was one of the unfortunate Hellespontine cities destroyed by fire by the Persian king Darios after his Skythian expedition; Strabo tells us that ‘he burned them because he had learned after his return from his attack upon the Skythians that the nomads were making preparations to cross the strait and attack him to avenge their sufferings, and was afraid that the cities would provide means for the passage of their army.”
The very similar stater type bearing an eagle standing in an identical posture but of later style and with a quadripartite incuse square (BMC Ionia pl. I, 23; Kraay ACGC 75) has long been attributed by noted numismatists including Head, Jameson and Kraay to Abydos. Kraay ascribed that type to the coinages of the Ionian Revolt in 499 against Persian overlordship, which Abydos certainly had good cause to join, and with the gold mines it possessed, had the means to support. The present coin’s obverse style is considerably more archaic in form than the aforementioned type, a fact borne out not only in the eagle itself, but also in the primitive form of the dolphin and the placement of the curious ‘floral tendril’ symbol above and right of the eagle. The reverse punch too is indicative of a striking date earlier than that proposed for Kraay 75, having more in common with the staters of Chios and other uncertain mints dated c. 525-500 (see for example R. Jameson, ‘Trouvaille de Vourla’, RN 1911, pl. I, 1; BMC 31, pl. I, 19); the fabric too retains more resemblance to early globular type struck coins than does Kraay 75. It is therefore proposed that the present type, first catalogued by Head in 1875 and seemingly since, potentially represents the earliest known coinage of Abydos.

 

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Trite della NAC 59.

Greek Coins 
Abydus
Trite circa 500, EL 4.66 g. Eagle standing l., with closed wings, looking backwards. Rev. Incuse punch. SNG München –, cf. 1 (stater). BMC –, cf. Ionia pl. I, 23 (stater). Aufhauser sale 20, 2007, 73.

Of the highest rarity, apparently only the second specimen known. Struck on a narrow flan, otherwise about extremely fine. Attributing uninscribed electrum coins of this period without assured badges, such as the tunny of Cyzicus or the seal of Phocaea, is extremely difficult. The trite offered here falls into that category. Abydus is an obvious possibility since the eagle was a common feature of its coinage, but the bird of Zeus appears on numerous Greek coins.
 

This piece has much in common with other coins which also have defied a reliable mint assignment. The foremost for comparison is an electrum stater of approximately the same era published in the British Museum catalogue of Ionia (pl. I, no. 23); it shows an eagle of similar proportions and identical pose, perched upon what is described as a hare, though it seems barely visible enough to make that assessment.
The incuse punch on the British Museum stater is of a different character, but that does not preclude the chance that they are related. Mention is made there of a stater of the same type which Barclay Head considered to be of an earlier period; instead of the eagle being perched on a hare it stands before a dolphin.
Head suggested an attribution to Abydus for the British Museum stater, no doubt because of its type of a standing eagle, which is so commonly observed on the independent coinage of that city. Other coinages with a standing eagle that offer useful comparison include some early silver fractions attributed to Abydus with incuse punch reverses (SNG Cop. 1-2; SNG Klein 292), though they show a bird of a different character, without its head reverted, as is the standard for Abydus.

 

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Stesso esemplare trite NAC 59 successivamente venduto nel Coin Shop CNG.

TROAS, Abydos. Late 6th-early 5th centuries BC. EL Trite – Third Stater (11mm, 4.67 g). Eagle standing left, head right, with wings closed / Incuse punch. SNG Ashmolean –; cf. SNG München 1 (stater); cf. BMC 33 (Ionia; same); Aufhauser 20 (16 October 2007), lot 73 (same dies). Near EF, slightly off center. Extremely rare – one of two known.

Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 59 (4 April 2011), lot 610.

 

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Dodicesimo di statere della CNG 335.

TROAS, Abydos. Late 6th-early 5th centuries BC. EL Twelfth Stater (7mm, 1.15 g). Eagle standing left, head reverted / Quadripartite incuse square. SNG Ashmolean –; SNG München –; SNG Copenhagen –; Roma VII (22 March 2014), lot 541. VF, off center. Rare.

 

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Dodicesimo di statere della CNG 341.

TROAS, Abydos. Late 6th-early 5th centuries BC. EL Twelfth Stater (8mm, 1.10 g). Eagle standing left, head right / Quadripartite incuse square. SNG Copenhagen –; SNG Ashmolean –; SNG München –; Roma VII (22 March 2014), lot 541. Fair. Very rare.

 

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Ventiquattresimo di statere della Savoca Numismatik 29th Silver Auction.

Greek
Asia Minor. Uncertain mint or Abydos, Troas circa 550-450 BC. 
Myshemihekte - 1/24 Stater EL
6mm., 0,56g.
Head of eagle left, dotted truncation / Incuse punch of mill-sail pattern.
very fine
Rosen 331 (uncertain mint).