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Lot 24. The Letaioi AR Stater, c. 500-480 BC

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Extremely rare and of powerful archaic style
The Letaioi AR Stater, c. 500-480 BC

Time left: 		Bidding closed (Sunday, September 11th, 19:12:00 CEST)
Current time: Monday, November 25th, 23:54:28 CET
Price realised: CHF 12'000.00 (2 bids)
Approx. EUR 12'882.92 / USD 13'463.40 / GBP 10'709.42
High bidder: Bidder 2

eAuction #50, Lot 24. Estimate: CHF 12'000.00

Thraco-macedonian tribes. The Letaioi. AR Stater (22 mm, 9.36 g), c. 500-480 BC.
Obv. ΛETAI, bearded Centaur carrying off protesting Maenade; below, dotted ground line.
Rev. Crested Corinthian helmet right within incuse square.
Svoronos, Hell. 38, 4 and pl. VI, 2. St. Topalov, Ancient Thrace. Contributions to the Study of the early Thracian Tribal Coinage and it's Relations to the Coinage of the Odrysians and the Odrysian Kingdom during 6th - 4th c. B.C. (2003), 222, 30.Traité I 153 ('Lete').

Extremely rare and of the highest interest. A beautiful coin of powerful archaic style. Scuff in the incuse field on the reverse, otherwise nearly extremely fine / very fine.

This coin is part of a series of Staters issued by Thraco-macedonian tribes in the early 5th Century. Its motif is an adaptation of the silver coinage of the island of Thasos that had become the predominant trade currency in the region. The tribes, however, replaced the Thasian Satyr with a wild Centaur more appropriate for the wild lands they were living in. The vast majority of these coins carry no ethnic and therefore make it impossible to ascribe them to specific tribes, but a few exceptional issues - such as ours - come with the ethnic spelled out. We therefore know that our coin was struck by the Letaioi, an obscure tribe in the mountainous region of the borderland between Thrace and Macedon that was famous for its rich silver deposits. The exceptionally well crafted obverse die in its utterly powerful archaic style makes it possible, if not likely, that the tribe was rich enough to hire a Greek master die cutter for this special issue. Whoever the artist was, he beautifully captured the motion and energy of his dramatic coin design while rendering the Centaur and the Maenade's faces in a most amazingly calm and noble Archaic style.



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