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Lot 61. Megalopolis Stater, 363-362 BC

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BCD Megalopolis Stater
Megalopolis Stater, 363-362 BC

Time left: 		Bidding closed (Sunday, September 11th, 19:30:30 CEST)
Current time: Wednesday, November 27th, 12:37:53 CET
Price realised: CHF 6'000.00 (1 bid)
Approx. EUR 6'459.65 / USD 6'792.08 / GBP 5'390.82
High bidder: Bidder 1

eAuction #50, Lot 61. Estimate: CHF 7'500.00

Megalopolis, Peloponnesos. AR Stater (23-24 mm, 11.77 g), summer 363 - spring 362 BC.
Obv. Laureate head of Zeus Lykaios left.
Rev. Youthful Pan, nude, his head facing, seated to left on a rock covered by his mantle, holding lagobolon in his right and resting his left elbow on the rock; at the foot of the rock, syrinx and OΛY.
BMC 48 (same reverse die). Gerin 32 (dies 3/e, this coin). Kunstfreund 203 (same reverse die). BCD 1513 (this coin).

Extremely rare, one of only twelve in private hands, and the only example known struck from this obverse die. Nicely toned and with a superb head of Zeus of lovely style and nice toning. About very fine.

From the BCD collection and ex LHS 96, 8-9 May 2006, 1513.

From the Peloponnesos Hoard (Gerin, pp. 21-22). One of the great rarities of the late Classical coinage of Greece and a true masterpiece of Greek numismatic art. The head of Zeus is surely taken from the statue of Zeus Brontaios by Leochares in Olympia and must refer to the Arkadians’ short-lived conquest of Olympia from the Eleans a few years before this coin was struck. According to Gerin’s reconstruction, all the staters were struck starting in Spring 363 and finished with the Battle of Mantinea in July 362. Only 33 specimens are known, of which 21 are in public collections. The stater issues of the Arkadian League minted in Megalopolis were produced in a very tightly die-linked group; there were three obverse dies (one slightly recut during its history of use) and six reverses (one signed by the magistrate XAPI, four with the name OLYM or OLY as this piece, and one with no visible signature). This coin comes at the end of the series and was struck using a new, third, obverse die that links through a shared reverse to the second obverse. This die seems to have gone out of use almost immediately after having struck this coin.



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