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Lot 525

Pair of Elizabeth II silver cream jugs, Birmingham 1958, 4.6oz approx Condition:

Lot 526

Edward VII silver deskstand fitted with a glass inkwell having silver mounts, Sheffield 1902, weighted Condition:

Lot 527

George V silver sauce boat, Birmingham 1931, together with an Edward VIII silver bon bon dish with pierced decoration, Birmingham 1936, combined weight 4.7oz approx Condition:

Lot 528

George V silver three piece tea set, Birmingham 1926, 27oz approx gross Condition:

Lot 529

Pair of George V silver candlesticks, each standing on a flared circular foot, Birmingham 1918 Condition:

Lot 530

George V oval silver and blue enamel trinket box, Birmingham 1924 Condition:

Lot 531

George V silver mug having engraved decoration, Birmingham 1922, together with an Edward VII silver cream jug, Birmingham 1904, combined weight 4oz approx Condition:

Lot 532

Japanese silver cigar box stamped Kobe, Sterling, the cover with engraved presentation signatures, together with an unmarked silver plated easel picture frame Condition:

Lot 533

Victorian leather Gladstone type travelling toiletry case having a fitted interior with silver covered glass requisites hallmarked for London 1899-1901 Condition:

Lot 534

George V silver mug, Sheffield 1929, 5.7oz approx Condition:

Lot 535

George V silver sugar bowl, Sheffield 1929, 6.5oz approx Condition:

Lot 536

George V silver helmet shaped cream jug, Birmingham 1919, 3.8oz approx Condition:

Lot 538

George V silver rectangular box, London 1927 Condition:

Lot 539

Pair of Edward VII silver two handled comports, one with a presentation inscription, Sheffield 1905, combined weight 17.2oz approx Condition:

Lot 540

Pair of George V silver oval bon bon dishes, each having pierced and embossed decoration, Birmingham 1926, 2.4oz approx Condition:

Lot 542

Small George V silver capstan inkwell, Chester 1913 Condition:

Lot 543

George V silver cigar lighter in the form of an oil lamp, Birmingham 1926, together with a pair of George V silver salts, each having a blue glass liner, Birmingham 1926 and a George V silver oval mustard pot, Birmingham 1926, combined total weighable silver 2.6oz approx Condition:

Lot 545

George V silver capstan inkwell, Birmingham 1919, together with a smaller similar inkwell, Chester 1913 Condition:

Lot 599

Modern Clogau silver and silver gilt Tree Of Life snap bangle Condition:

Lot 610

Two silver brooches and a bangle Condition:

Lot 619

Pair of 9ct gold cufflinks, 3.2g approx, together with a small quantity of silver jewellery Condition:

Lot 620

Silver charm bracelet Condition:

Lot 623

Modern jade pendant, two other hardstone pendants and a silver gilt ring set jade panel Condition:

Lot 626

Various unmarked white metal and hallmarked silver jewellery Condition:

Lot 627

Edwardian 15ct gold ring set diamonds and turquoise, size N, silver brooch and a small quantity of other items Condition:

Lot 637

Quantity of various silver and costume jewellery Condition:

Lot 639

Gold Coin - George V sovereign, 1912, in a loose mount, together with a gilt metal watch chain, a gold plated top wind pocket watch and a silver cased key wind pocket watch Condition:

Lot 640

Victorian silver cased key wind pocket watch, the decorative silvered dial with Roman numerals and subsidiary seconds dial, Chester 1874 Condition:

Lot 641

Early 20th Century silver plated cased key wind pocket watch, the white enamel dial with Roman numerals and subsidiary seconds dial Condition:

Lot 643

Omega - Silver plated cased top wind pocket watch, the dial with Arabic and Roman numerals and with subsidiary seconds dial Condition:

Lot 644

Victorian silver cased key wind pocket watch, the dial Roman numerals and subsidiary seconds dial Condition:

Lot 646

Victorian engraved silver cased full hunter pocket watch, the dial with Roman numerals and subsidiary seconds dial, London 1872 together with another silver cased pocket watch Condition:

Lot 650

Two silver cased key wind fob watches Condition:

Lot 651

Engraved silver cased key wind fob watch together with a silver curb link Albert Condition:

Lot 653

Silver cased key wind pocket watch, the white enamel dial with Roman numerals and subsidiary seconds dial, Birmingham 1884 together with two silver cased fob watches Condition:

Lot 659

Lady's silver cased wristwatch with modernist design silver bracelet strap, Birmingham 1973 Condition:

Lot 662

Must de Cartier - Silver gilt tank quartz wristwatch, the ivory dial having Roman numerals, on a brown leather strap, together with a Cartier International Repair guarantee certificate Condition:

Lot 663

Must de Cartier - Silver gilt tank quartz wristwatch, the ivory dial having Roman numerals, together with original guarantee certificate for Chilcotts of Bath Condition:

Lot 669

Lady's 9ct gold cased wristwatch together with a silver and green enamel cased lady's fob watch Condition:

Lot 670

Vertex engine turned silver cased purse watch, import marks for London 1935 Condition:

Lot 75

Quantity of various silver plated items Condition:

Lot 88

Quantity of various silver plated items including: tray, cutlery, cake stand, etc Condition:

Lot 107

Kingdom of Macedon, Philip II AV Hemistater. Lifetime issue. Amphipolis, circa 340-328 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin headdress / Forepart of lion to right; crescent below, ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥ above. Le Rider 2 (D1/R2); SNG ANS 280 var. (same obverse die; scallop shell on reverse). 4.30g, 14mm, 5h. Extremely Fine. Very Rare, and exceptional condition for the issue, being both well preserved and perfectly centred on a very large flan. Ex Roma Numismatics VI, 29 September 2013, lot 544 (£16,000); Ex Gorny & Mosch 211, 4 March 2013, lot 179. Philip II inherited a poor kingdom on the verge of collapse. His brother Perdikkas III had died in battle against the Illyrians along with a great part of the Macedonian army. As A. B. Bosworth (1988, 6) puts it, “Philip came to power... when Macedon was threatened by dissolution, debilitated by a decade of dynastic feuding and crippled by military defeat at the hands of the Illyrians”, and he is joined by J. R. Ellis (1976, 44, cf. 1980, 36f) who writes “seldom can any state have so nearly approached total dismemberment without utterly disintegrating”. Philip’s predecessors had paid large tribute to the Illyrians since the 390s, and it was really only through bribery and a complex and changing system of alliances that Macedon was able to stave off invasion and conquest. Despite his precarious position, within two years and with little money to do it, Philip had reformed the shattered Macedonian peasant-army, introducing the innovative, professional and highly effective Phalanx corps armed with 18 foot long sarissas. Putting to good use all he had learned from Epaminondas, from whom he had received a military and diplomatic education, Philip pushed back the Thracians and Paeonians with promise of tribute and crushed the Athenian force that had come against him in 359. He conquered Amphipolis in 357, followed by Krenides in 356, and thus gained command of the Mount Pangeion region and the 1000 talents a year in gold that its mines provided. Following hot on the heels of his military reforms, Philip revolutionised the coinage of the kingdom of Macedon, which would eventually also supersede that of all Greece. Philip’s brother Perdikkas, though he had initially struck a silver coinage, was later like his elder brother Alexander II before him, only able to coin in bronze. Philip now had prodigious quantities of not only silver, but gold too in measure beyond what his brothers could have dreamed. Before Philip, gold coins issued by the Greeks had been extremely infrequent, and struck usually only in times of great emergency. Philip’s control of the Pangeion mines now enabled him to make Macedon the first state in the Greek world to issue gold uninterruptedly year on year, which he did with a new standardised Macedonian gold currency denominated in staters, hemistaters (such as the present example) and quarter staters, as well as 1/8 and 1/12 fractions. This wealth would provide the driving force behind his successive conquests, expansion and diplomatic manoeuvres that enabled him to unify all Greece under Macedonian hegemony, and set the stage for his planned invasion of Persia.

Lot 120

Kingdom of Macedon, Alexander III 'the Great' AR Dekadrachm. Babylon, circa 325-323 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin headdress / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left, holding sceptre, on throne with eagle-tipped finials; AΛEΞANΔPOY to right, monogram and M below throne. Price 3600 = Mitchiner, The Early Indo-Greeks and their Antecedents p.11, illustration 4 = NAC 72, 344 = Price, Mnemata, 6 = Coin Hoard 1975 fig. 6, 2 (same dies); ACR 8, 198 (same dies). 39.09g, 33mm, 5h. Near Extremely Fine. One of exceedingly few surviving dekadrachms of Alexander. From a private Canadian collection. In all of human history, there have been but very few individuals whose accomplishments are recounted again and again undimmed by time, whose legends have grown only brighter with the passing of the years, and whose names can stir fierce emotion and wonder at a distance of millennia. Alexander is perhaps the greatest of all such paragons of humanity, whose life and exploits are the near-incredible stuff of myth and fable. Silver dekadrachms, be they of Athens, Syracuse, Akragas or Carthage, have ever been amongst the most desired and sought-after of ancient coins by virtue of their impressive size and weight, and the large canvas they presented for the showcasing of the engraver's art. Though considered 'rare', the surviving dekadrachms of Syracuse number in the high hundreds or low thousands, and those of Athens in the dozens. Fewer than twenty dekadrachms of Alexander are known to exist today - figurative grains of sand on a beach amidst the hundreds of thousands of surviving tetradrachms, drachms, staters and other fractions. The extreme rarity of Alexander's dekadrachms has therefore contributed an aura of unobtainability to the mystery of this most iconic coinage. Missing from most of the world's major institutional collections, the majority of the examples known today originated from the 1973 'Babylon' Hoard (sometimes also referred to as the Mesopotamia Hoard), and a smaller 1989 find that Martin Price believed to be a part of the original 1973 deposit. The eight coins that are known to have come from these two groups form the backbone of the Dekadrachm corpus. Struck in three emissions from a mint generally considered to be at Babylon, but possibly Susa or Ekbatana, the dekadrachms formed part of a massive conversion of bullion seized from the Persian Royal treasuries at Susa and Persepolis - some 180,000 Attic talents (4,680 metric tons) were liberated from those vaults, converted by decree of the King into ready coinage to meet the expenses of his vast empire and to pay his beloved soldiers. That so few examples of this large denomination survive today is potentially indicative of a special significance or purpose for these coins. It is certainly tempting to think - as many often have - that they represent presentation pieces intended for certain men of rank, and that Alexander, who was well known for his love of giving gifts, may have distributed them personally. In reality though, their low survival rate is probably due to the impracticality of the denomination, since the ubiquitous tetradrachm was the more common and more convenient medium of payment. Regardless of its intended purpose, and though it represents only a small splinter that survives of Alexander's great vision, today his dekadrachms are one of the most tangible artefacts of his reign, and amongst the greatest prizes of ancient Greek numismatics.

Lot 2

Britannia, Trinovantes AR Unit. Circa 50-40 BC. Late Whaddon Chase type (Lister’s Celtic Head). Male head right, large locks of hair falling down to the back of neck in twisted strands, small horse before / Stylised Celtic horse with large ear and cabled mane prancing to right, winged object and pellets above, star above tail, ringed-pellet below. ABC 2478; VA 1540; BMC-; S-. 1.13g, 14mm, 4h. Mint State, struck on sound silver. Lustrous. Extremely Rare; only 14 others recorded, and the finest known specimen. Purchased from Chris Rudd; Found at Meldreth, Cambridgeshire, 31 March 2014. Possibly issued by Cassivellaunos, commander of the British coalition against Caesar in 54 BC, it has been suggested by Chris Rudd that this coin bears the portrait of Cassivellaunos himself, though he admits this is by no means certain, and that it could just as likely represent a Catuvellaunian war-god. He further notes that “this is one of the most imposing male heads to be seen on any late iron age coin or Romano-British figurine.” The type was named ‘Lister’s Celtic Head’ in honour of Major Clement Wynter Lister (1920-2010), who served on the council of the British Numismatic Society for twelve years, from 1963-66, and 1969-76. The type had been unknown until 1958 when Major Lister published the first discovered specimen (see BNJ XXIX, 1958/9, pp 5-7 and plate XV), saying: “Julius Caesar, in his Gallic Wars, Book I, chap. xiv, records that the inhabitants of Britain ‘wear their hair long and have every part of their body shaved except the head and upper lip’’, This coin, almost alone among British coins, bears out this description…The head is likely to be that of some British or Belgic deity following the Roman pattern, though it might be argued that it could be of a tribal king’. The moustache, which although appearing smooth on this example, is serrated on the Lister example.

Lot 220

Mysia, Kyzikos EL Stater. Circa 500-450 BC. Head of Silenos facing; tunny fish upward to either side / Quadripartite incuse square. CNG 75, 23 May 2007, lot 336; cf. Von Fritze 77 (fractions); SNG France -; Hurter & Liewald I, 77. 15.96g, 19mm. Near Mint State. Extremely Rare; one of only a dozen known examples, and certainly the finest of all. From the A.F. Collection, Germany. This spectacular coin features a bold facing portrait of Silenos engraved in excellent archaic style. The teacher and faithful companion of the wine-god Dionysos, Silenos was described as the oldest, wisest and most drunken of the followers of Dionysos, and was said in Orphic hymns to be the young god's tutor. Originally a folkloric man of the forest with the ears of a horse (and sometimes also the tail and legs of a horse), Silenos was often depicted with thick lips and a squat nose, as is the case here, fat, and most often bald – though our Silenos may consider himself fortunate in that he sports a full head of hair. Unusual consideration has been given to symmetry in the composition of this type: though symmetrical designs do occur, as in the case of two eagles perched on an omphalos (v. Fritze 220) or the double bodied sphinx (v. Fritze 138) to name but two, this is one of a tiny minority of designs that incorporates two tunny fish for balance. Interestingly, it has been suggested that the head of Silenos on this coin very possibly served as the model for a silver issue of the slightly later Lykian dynast Teththiveibi (see BMC 88 and SNG Berry 1164). One of the principal myths concerning Silenos has him lost and wandering in Phrygia, rescued by peasants and taken to the Phrygian King Midas, who treated him kindly. In return for Midas' hospitality Silenos regaled him with tales and Midas, enchanted by Silenos' fictions, entertained him for five days and nights. When the god Dionysos found his wayward friend, he offered Midas a reward for his kindness towards Silenos, a blessing which the avaricious Midas squandered by choosing the power of turning everything he touched into gold. How fitting then, that we should see in this beautiful coin a faint reflection of that classic myth of the drunken but sage Silenos looking out at us across the millennia through this window of golden metal.

Lot 235

Mysia, Kyzikos EL Stater. Circa 500-450 BC. Facing gorgoneion with mouth open and tongue protruding, six serpents on top of head, another below each ear; below, tunny fish to left / Quadripartite incuse square. Von Fritze 129, pl. IV, 15; Boston 1445 = Warren 1492; cf. SNG von Aulock 7295 (hemihekte); SNG France -. 16.11g, 20mm. Extremely Fine. Extremely Rare. From the A.F. Collection, Germany. While the origin or inspiration for many of the types used at Kyzikos is obscure or uncertain, the apotropaic design used on this type is very similar in style to those found on the silver coinage of Apollonia Pontika on the Black Sea coast of Thrace (Topalov 37-38ff), and certain issues from both Mytilene (Bodenstedt 19) and Phokaia (Triton XIX, 217). All were important trading hubs within a relatively short distance of Kyzikos; the latter's strategic location on the main trade route would inevitably have meant close economic ties. Given that Apollonia Pontika utilised the gorgoneion as their principal reverse type, it seems likely that this would have been the primary source of inspiration for the present coin. Regardless of the stylistic origin of this beautiful stater, the use of the gorgoneion as an apotropaic (for averting evil influences or bad luck) symbol is well attested in Greek art from the Orientalising period in the eighth and seventh centuries BC, and it remained a popular protective convention until the advent of widespread Christianity, though even then its use persisted in the Byzantine empire. Widely employed on the coinage of Greek city states (no fewer than 37, as per A. Potts, 'The World's Eye', 1982), the gorgoneion ranked in numismatic ubiquity only below several principal Olympian gods and Herakles. Its origin cannot be directly traced; though there is a similar monstrous image from the Knossos palace, datable to the fifteenth century BC, and and it has been argued (Marija Gimbutas, 'The Living Goddesses', 2001) that "the Gorgon extends back to at least 6000 BC, as a ceramic mask from the Sesklo culture illustrates", this identification of a monstrous image as the traditional gorgoneion of myth cannot be supported. Gimbutas also identified the prototype of the gorgoneion in Neolithic art motifs, especially in anthropomorphic vases and terracotta masks inlaid with gold, however this approach fails to take into account a very widespread use of monstrous or otherwise frightening visages at a primitive human level, some of which inevitably accrue more complex mythologies around them. In the near east, the myth of the Mesopotamian monster Humbaba 'the Terrible' and its death at the hands of the hero Gilgamesh has some striking parallels with that of Medusa and Perseus, and both monsters are certainly depicted in very similar manners. However, while any attempt to imply a direct connection between the two is ultimately futile, we may certainly consider that the autonomous and indigenous European gorgoneion could have assimilated some aspects of its near-eastern parallel. Possibly our only clue to the evolution of the Greek myth lies in the work of Homer, who refers to the Gorgon on four occasions, each time alluding to only one gorgon, and just the head alone, as if it had no body. The implication is that the myth of the gorgon Medusa was not yet fully developed, and indeed it appears to have been left to Hesiod (Theogeny, c.700 BC) to imagine the Gorgons as sea daemons and increase their number to three.

Lot 245

Kingdom of Lydia, Alyattes EL Trite - 1/3 Stater. Sardes, circa 610 BC. Head of roaring lion right, solar-disk on forehead, confronting open jaws of lion's head left; upwards Lydian legend ALYA between; granular field / Two incuse square punches. For similar issues with Lydian legends cf. Weidauer groups XVII ('VALVEL') and XVIII ('..KALIL..'); ATEC pp. 215-216, groups a and b; Kraay ACGC p. 24, 63 (WELVES) or (WELVET). 4.71g, 13mm. Extremely Fine. Unpublished, and of the highest rarity and importance. Ex private German Collection; Roma Numismatics III, 31 Mar 2012, lot 277. The Lydians were commercial people, who, according to Herodotus, had customs like the Greeks and were the first people to introduce the use of gold and silver coins, and the first to establish retail shops in permanent locations (Herodotus I, 94). The kingdom reached its zenith during the reign of Alyattes, the fourth Lydian king of the house of Gyges, son of Sadyattes and father of Kroisos. He is seen as the founder of the Lydian Empire and continued the war begun by his father against powerful Miletos, though he was soon obliged to turn his attention towards the Medes and Babylonians. On 28 May 585 BC, during the Battle of Halys fought against Kyaxares, king of Media, a solar eclipse took place; hostilities were suspended, peace concluded, and the Halys fixed as the boundary between the two kingdoms. He proceeded to drive the Kimmerians out of Phrygia, thus securing the trade route with the east. In the west he was able to subdue the Karians, and took several important Ionian cities including Smyrna and Kolophon, enabling him to consolidate a Mediterranean trading outlet. The earliest electrum coinage of Lydia has been the subject of much scholarly debate and variously attributed to the reigns of Gyges, Sadyattes and Alyattes. In a well thought out article 'KUKALIṂ, WALWET, and the Artemision deposit', in Agoranomia, Studies in Money and Exchange Presented to John H. Kroll, ANS New York 2006, R.W. Wallace not only corrects the reading of the two previously known legends, 'VALVEL' and '..KALIL..', but convincingly demonstrates that the two series, with their several die links, belong to the same period during the reign of Alyattes, datable to about 600 BC. However, Wallace's interpretation of WALWET as the Lydian name of Alyattes is put seriously in doubt by the appearance of the above ALYA issue, a legend much closer to the Hellenized form of Alyattes. WALWET may be connected to the Luwian word 'walwi' (lion) and 'KUKALIṂ' may be translated as 'I am of Kukas'. These legends are probably the names of moneyers, mint-officials or regal titles appertaining to Alyattes. The ALYA issue was struck at 1/3 of a stater on the so-called Lydo-Milesian weight standard of 14.1 grams in alluvial electrum, a naturally occurring gold-silver alloy found in abundance in the washings of the Pactolos river which runs from the slopes of Mount Tmolos, through Sardis and empties into the Hermos. According to legend, King Midas divested himself of the golden touch by washing himself in the river (Ovid, Met. 11.140-144). The variable composition of electrum rendered it a difficult commodity to trade without a seal of guarantee of value, unlike pure gold or silver which had been merely weighed throughout the middle east for millennia. The seal of guarantee initially chosen was the image of a lion's head, the personification of royal authority, strength, courage, wisdom, justice, protection, fire and gold ('subterranean sun'), all attributes that the ambitious kings of Lydia would have been keen to emphasise. The lion, with its golden-brown coat and radiate mane was principally the personification of the sun itself, and hence it is found as a symbol of eastern sun-gods such as Mithras. The zodiac sign Leo was occupied by the Sun in the hottest part of the year, July 22 to August 22, and it was probably on account of this that it was believed that the lion was able to gaze directly at the sun without blinking. In Egypt the male lions were the guardians of the eastern and western horizons, and hence sun-rise and sun-set. It is not by chance that the head of the lion of this coin has a disk on the forehead, which can only be the solar disk, later replaced by a radiate setting or rising sun on the anonymous 1/3-staters (trites), usually attributed to Alyattes, hardly a wart 'Warz' as suggested by Weidauer for group XV. Indeed the very name of Anatolia (from the Greek Ἀνατολή, Anatolḗ) means the 'east' or [land of] 'sunrise'.

Lot 250

Kingdom of Lydia, Kroisos AV Stater. Heavy standard. Sardes, circa 564/53-550/39 BC. Confronted foreparts of roaring lion to right and bull to left, each with extended foreleg / Two incuse squares punches. Berk 2; Le Rider, Naissance, pl. V, 2; Traité I 396; BMC 30; Boston MFA 2068–9; Gulbenkian 756. 10.75g, 17mm. Good Very Fine. Rare. Kroisos is credited with issuing the first true gold coins with a standardised purity for general circulation. The series began on a 'heavy' standard, with gold and silver staters of equal weight, around 10.6-10.7 grams, which was later reduced to about 8.17 grams for the gold. Studies have shown that coins of both standards circulated together, but that the heavy standard was only used for a relatively short time compared to the light standard, which continued to be used into the Persian period. All of the coins of Kroisos feature without variation his heraldic badge, the confronted heads of a lion and a bull, both ancient symbols of power. The badge itself doubtless stems from the ubiquitous and persistent theme of the lion-bull combat scene, which may be interpreted as a metaphor for divinely inspired heroic triumph. Indeed, divinely inspired heroic triumph was exactly what Kroisos expected when, encouraged by a prediction by the Delphic Oracle that if he attacked Persia he would destroy a great empire, Kroisos made his preparations for war with Cyrus the Great. The war resulted in defeat for Kroisos; his numerically superior army was smashed, and the capital Sardes was captured along with Kroisos and his family, who were immolated on the orders of Cyrus. Lydia became a satrapy of the Persian Empire, though it continued to mint coins in the traditional types, and indeed the legendary wealth of Kroisos was used by Cyrus to form the basis of a new Persian gold standard currency.

Lot 261

Karia, Halikarnassos AR Tetradrachm. Circa 400-387 BC. Head of Apollo facing slightly right / AΛIKAPNAΣΣEΩN, eagle standing to right, with wings spread, star to right; all within shallow incuse square. Cf. S. Hurter, ‘42 Tetradrachmen von Klazomenai’, SNR 45, 1966, p. 45, pl. VI, F = Lorber, Amphipolis, the Civic Coinage in Silver and Gold, 1990, pl. IV, fig 21 = The New York Sale XXVII, 533; Gemini XIII, 80 (same dies); Roma XIII, 328 (same dies). 15.24g, 21.5mm, 12h. Extremely Fine. Of the highest rarity; one of only five known tetradrachms of Halikarnassos, and one of just three of this type. Ex Triton XX, 10 January 2017, lot 303. A single example of this important tetradrachm type was published in 1966 by S. Hurter (‘42 Tetradrachmen von Klazomenai’, SNR 45, 1966, p. 45, pl. VI, F) which for over half a century remained the only known example to have survived. Four further examples, including this coin, recently came to light, which though clearly from the same issue, bear different control marks (sunburst or serpent, not bow). Numismatists have however been aware of the coinage series as a whole for quite some time; approximately 34 drachms are known to exist, along with 3 hemidrachms (see the preceding lot), yet it is remarkable that so few of the larger denomination survived. Originally thought to have been struck after the satrap Maussolos moved the capital of the satrapy of Karia from the Hekatomnid ancestral seat of Mylasa to Halikarnassos, the dating of the Hecatomnus hoard disproves this notion. This coinage therefore most likely represents a civil issue of Halikarnassos struck prior to the King’s Peace of 387 BC, when virtually all civil coinages of the Greek states in Asia Minor ceased. Certainly, despite the city having been firmly aligned with Persia in the days of Artemisia in the early fifth century, her grandson Lygdamis II brought the city into the Delian League and the city was, for an uncertain period of time, independent of Persian rule. It is tempting therefore to view this type as a product of the turbulent early years of the fourth century, when the Athenian general Thrasyboulos, in response to renewed conflict with Sparta, began re-establishing Athenian alliances with the cities in Asia Minor that had previously been allies. If this issue, evidently intended to be a reasonably substantial one considering that at least two die pairs existed, was begun in circa 389-387 and cut short by the reassertion of Persian influence in 387, this would explain the relative rarity of this series today. That the obverse of this coinage was heavily influenced by the Rhodian facing-head coinage that had been recently introduced is clear. That it was retained by the Hekatomnid satraps as the obverse type of their coinage once the move from Mylasa to Halikarnassos was complete is also evident, but more difficult to explain. Relegating his father’s obverse of Zeus Labraundos to the reverse while doing away entirely with the lion motif may have been nothing more than political expedient aimed at cultivating goodwill, but perhaps it may also reflect the distinct thread of philhellenism that ran through the Hekatomnid family.

Lot 280

Bithynia, Kios AV Stater. Circa 340-330. Hierokles, magistrate. Laureate head of Apollo to right / Prow of war galley to left, ornamented with a star on fighting platform; club above, eagle standing to left before, IEPOΚΛΗΣ above. Waddington, Recueil Général des Monnaies Grecques d’Asie Mineure, pl. XLIX, 3 (same dies). 8.52g, 17mm, 12h. Near Mint State. Extremely Rare; one of fewer than a dozen known examples of which almost all are in museums. From the A.F. Collection, Germany. According to myth, Kios was founded on the Propontic coast by the Argonaut Polyphemos, with Herakles' approval. In practice, the site appears to have been first a Mysian, then a Karian colony, which was refounded by Milesians in circa 626/5 (Euseb. Chron. 97b). Nothing is known about the city's early history, but it was under Persian domination from as early as 547/6 onwards. The Kians made several attempts to shake off the Persian yoke, first taking part in the Ionian Revolt in 497, then twice joining the Delian League, but though a Greek settlement, it is described as both small and barbarised, and in the Athenian tribute-list it is one of the many insignificant places assessed at 1,000 drachmai. Each time therefore, it is unsurprising that it was quickly brought back under Persian rule, and from 404 Kios made no further bids for independence. Kios' civic coinage is confined to a narrow period in the mid 4th century BC, struck either shortly before or immediately after Alexander's invasion of Asia Minor. Though it has been suggested that the coinage may have been intended to pay Mercenaries, this seems unlikely since the circulation of all the Kian coin series seems to have been limited. Throughout Alexander's reign Kios was in the hands of a Persian dynast, Mithridates, uncle of the founder of the kingdom of Pontus, who ruled there from 337 to 302. While he lived, the city was never in the Hellespontine satrapy, demonstrated by the fact that when Antigonos drove out the Hellespontine satrap in 318, he fled to Kios (Diod. XVIII, 72, 2). Given that the Kian coins feature the names of civic magistrates rather than those of a local dynast, it seems possible that a short-lived uprising, unknown to history, may have occurred in the early part of the second half of the fourth century which occasioned the striking of a small number of gold staters, silver drachms and hemidrachms.

Lot 320

Parthia, Andragoras AR Tetradrachm. Hekatompylos, circa 246/5-239/8 BC. Turreted head of Tyche right, wearing pendant earring and necklace, rosettes on turrets; monogram of Andragoras behind / Athena standing right, wearing helmet, long chiton and peplos, holding owl on extended left hand and with right hand holding transverse spear behind her, shield at side; ANΔPAΓOPOY to left. Roma XIV, 328; Mitchiner -; BMC -. 16.90g, 27mm, 7h. Good Very Fine. Unpublished, only the second known example of this numismatically important type. From the 1960s Andragoras-Sophytes Group, present in Germany in 1975, subsequently exported to the USA. If we accept that the silver coinage of Andragoras was struck by the same individual responsible for the gold staters (BMC Arabia, North East Persia 1), and that this individual was the Andragoras recorded as being the satrap who rebelled against Seleukid rule in the early part of the second half of the third century BC, the types employed on this ruler's coinage now make perfect sense given their context. Andragoras faced a belligerent tribe - the Parni - on his border, and with Seleukos II preoccupied with fighting an increasingly desperate war against Ptolemy III, no assistance would be forthcoming. Thus we find the types of Tyche, wearing her mural crown, who on the obverse is invoked as the goddess governing the fortune and prosperity of the city, and Athena as military protectress on the reverse. The gold staters depicting Zeus, the supreme Greek deity, and a war-chariot guided by Nike the goddess of Victory, likewise hint at production in a war-time setting.

Lot 321

Parthia(?), 'Athenian Series' AR Tetradrachm. Hekatompylos(?), circa 246/5-239/8 BC. Attic standard. Head of Athena right, wearing earring, necklace, and crested Attic helmet decorated with three olive leaves over visor and a spiral palmette on the bowl; monogram of Andragoras(?) behind / Owl standing right, head facing; prow behind, AΘE before. Roma XIV, 329; Bopearachchi, Sophytes Series 1A; SNG ANS -; H. Nicolet-Pierre / M. Amandry, "Un nouveau trésor de monnaies d'argent pseudo-Athéniennes venu d'Afghanistan", RN 1994, 36-39; Mitchiner 13a = G.F. Hill, Greek coins acquired by the British Museum in 1920," in NC 1921, 17. 16.87g, 26mm, 6h. Extremely Fine. Extremely Rare. From the 1960s Andragoras-Sophytes Group, present in Germany in 1975, subsequently exported to the USA. The presence of this particular monogram on these issues of the 'Athenian Series' coinage is confounding. It is (with the occasional inclusion or omission of a central vertical line) precisely the same monogram that appears on all of the silver tetradrachms of Andragoras, as well as the gold staters (BMC Arabia, North East Persia 1) which have been variously attributed to either a Satrap appointed by Alexander in c.331 BC, or the Seleukid satrap who declared independence in 246/5 BC. The monogram has three possible explanations: firstly, the monogram could be an engraver's signature; secondly, it could be a magistral mark, the monogram of a mint or treasury official; thirdly, it could be the monogram of the issuing authority, i.e. the satrap. If indeed as we have proposed above there was only the one Andragoras, and that his silver and gold coinage is related, it is equally possible that the monogram could belong to engraver, official or satrap. However, examining the monogram itself, one can easily read 'ANΔPAΓOPAΣ', whether the central vertical line is present or not. The implications, if this is indeed correct, are significant. It may require the reconsideration of the attribution of at least part of the 'Athenian Series' and 'Eagle Series' coinage from Sophytes to Andragoras and therefore the Ekbatana mint. The matter is not so simple though, since the 'MNA' mark that appears on some other 'Athenian Series' coins also appears on the bust truncation of the helmeted coins of Sophytes. Additionally, there are other monograms and marks which cannot be tied to either Andragoras or Sophytes. One possible answer to this puzzle is that the 'Athenian Series' was not all struck at a single 'uncertain mint in the Oxus region', and that Athenian imitations were being produced at various satrapal minting facilities in the region for the purpose of local commerce, each utilising a different control mark or set of controls. Nicolet-Pierre and Amandry also reached the same tentative conclusion (see N&A p.40). We will not presume to attempt to solve a century old mystery in the few hours available to us - this must be left to others with more time - however in this cataloguer's opinion the links between the 'Athenian Series' and the coinage of both Andragoras and Sophytes cannot be ignored, and for the time being we have elected to re-attribute part of the 'Athenian Series' and 'Eagle Series' to the mint under Andragoras' control, since the same monogram can be found across those series."

Lot 355

Anonymous AR Didrachm. Rome, or 'Mint D', 234-231 BC. Laureate head of Apollo right / Horse prancing left; ROMA above. Crawford 26/1; RSC 37; HN Italy 306. 6.53g, 20mm, 4h. Extremely Fine. From the collection of P.G., Germany, outside of Italy prior to December 1992. After the victory over the Samnites, the Senate instated a new, standardised monetary system. For the first two decades, bronze bars were the predominant issues, after which point silver coinage began to appear. This type is from what H. Mattingly describes as ‘Mint D’ which he locates either at Apulia or Beneventum. The legend on the older design (struck from 269 BC onwards) was ROMANO which had been shortened to ROMA by the time this type was struck, however the significance of this is unclear. Showing distinct Greek influence, this is a fine example of early Roman silver coinage. Cf. Mattingly, H, The First Age of Roman Coinage, The Journal of Roman Studies 35, Parts 1 and 2 (1945), pp. 65-77.

Lot 422

Q. Servilius Caepio (M. Junius) Brutus AR Denarius. Military mint travelling with Brutus and Cassius in western Asia Minor or northern Greece, late summer-autumn 42 BC. L. Plaetorius Cestianus, moneyer. Bare head of Brutus right; BRVT above, IMP to right, L•PLAET•CEST around to left / Pileus between two daggers pointing downward; EID•MAR below. Crawford 508/3; Cahn 20c; CRI 216; Sydenham 1301; BMCRR East 68-70; RSC 15; Campana, Eidibus Martiis, 64, (O4/R9 [this coin]). 3.76g, 18mm, 12h. About Very Fine; some very minor spots of corrosion on obv. Rare. From the Eucharius Collection; Privately purchased from a Swiss collection in the 1960s. Formed, we are told, mostly in the 1950s and 60s, the Eucharius Collection comprised over 400 silver coins of the Roman Republic, including numerous rarities. Unfortunately the collector responsible for amassing this group is no longer with us, and the present owner wishes it to remain anonymous, so this beautiful collection was named for the day on which it was consigned: December 8th, the feast day of Saint Eucharius. Presented in our Auction XI were 127 of the highest quality specimens; the remainder of the collection was dispersed through Roma Numismatics’ E-Sales. This coin, undoubtedly the most valuable piece present in the collection and certainly the most iconic, was kept back until last by the present owner. Nothing resonates so deeply with those knowledgeable in ancient Roman coinage as the dramatic EID MAR type struck by Brutus in 42 BC, nor indeed is any type more sought after by connoisseurs. Herbert A. Cahn’s 1989 study entitled Eidibus Martiis noted 56 examples in silver and two in gold. Though anecdotal comments suggest the extent of the surviving population of EID MAR denarii may approximate as many as one hundred specimens - a reasonably high figure for what is considered to be an extreme rarity - no other ancient coin type has inspired such admiration, fascination, disbelief and desire in the hearts of historians, numismatists and collectors. Foremost of the reasons for the exalted position of the type in the collective consciousness is its naked and shameless celebration of the murder of Julius Caesar two years earlier in 44 BC. This brutal and bloody assassination had been prompted by the well-founded belief among the Senate that Caesar intended to make himself king, which in truth he was already in all but name. By special decree of the Senate Caesar had been made dictator perpetuo - dictator in perpetuity - and granted the extraordinary and unprecedented honour of striking coins bearing his own likeness, thus breaking the ancient taboo of placing the image of a living Roman upon a coin. By these and other affronts to the traditional values and institutions of the Republic did Caesar seal his fate. On 15 March, 44 BC, in a room adjoining the east portico of the Theatre of Pompey, Caesar was stabbed twenty three times by the gang of Senators numbering over thirty and perhaps as many as sixty, men that Caesar called his friends, and of whom many had been pardoned by him on the battlefield and now owed their ranks and offices to him. The simple but bold reverse design employed by Brutus contains the three principal elements of this ‘patriotic’ act of regicide committed to liberate the Republic from monarchical tyranny. Most striking are the two daggers of differing design, the one symbolising that wielded by Brutus himself, the other that of Cassius his co-consipirator. These flank the pileus, the cap of Liberty as worn by the divine twins and patrons of Roman armies Castor and Pollux, and which was conferred upon all freed slaves as a mark of their emancipation. The legend EID MAR is the abbreviation of EIDIBVS MARTIIS – the Ides of March. Thus, in an act of unparalleled braggadocio, we are at once presented with the murder weapons used to slay Caesar, the precise date of the deed, and the motive. While the leaders of the Second Triumvirate Antony, Octavian and Lepidus embraced the practice of striking coins bearing their own images, the hypocrisy of Brutus placing his own portrait on the obverse of the EID MAR type cannot have been lost on the Liberator. Both a betrayal of his personal devotion to the ancient traditions of the Republic, and an emulation of the tyrant he had slain, it may well be that he was convinced into allowing his image to be co-opted by the Republican party as a rallying symbol for the swiftly approaching engagement between their legions and those of the Antony and Octavian. As a descendent of Lucius Junius Brutus, the founder and first consul of the Roman Republic, who in 509 BC had sworn on a bloody dagger to overthrow the unjust rule of the Tarquin kings, the clearly drawn parallels must have been heady propaganda to the Republican cause.

Lot 549

Hadrian AV Aureus. Rome, AD 124-128. HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS, laureate bust right, slight drapery on far shoulder / COS III, Capitoline wolf standing left, suckling the twins Romulus and Remus. RIC 193d; Strack 195θ; Calicó 1233a; BMCRE 449; Biaggi 598. 7.33g, 21mm, 6h. Mint State. A superb aureus of Hadrian with this ever-popular motif of the foundation myth. From the property of B.R.S., United Kingdom. The only shared component in the foundation legends recorded since the third century BC is that Romulus and Remus were the twin sons of a Vestal Virgin called Rhea Silvia. For the rest of the myth, there are many variances, but one of the most commonly attested narratives is the one told by Livy in his History of Rome. According to Livy, Rhea Silvia was the daughter of Numitor, the rightful king of Alba Longa (the city founded by Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, at the foot of the Alban hills) who was usurped by his brother Amulius and his progeny killed or, in his daughter’s case, deprived of hope of having children through being forced to be a Vestal Virgin. Rhea Silvia became pregnant through an encounter with the god Mars and the twins were set afloat on the flooded Tiber in the hope they would drown as ordered by the king of Alba Longa. Their crying attracted the attention of a she-wolf who nursed them and was so gentle that the shepherd Faustulus who found them, saw the wolf licking the human babies. The twins were then taken in by Faustulus and his wife and raised in the area around the Palatine hill until, as adults, they overthrew the usurper king and decided to found their own community where they had grown up. This type can be traced back to the earliest coinage of the Republic; a silver didrachm (Crawford 20/1) dated to circa 264-255 BC depicts on the obverse a youthful Hercules wearing a lion skin around his neck, and upon the reverse are the twins being suckled by the she-wolf. The type, either alone or as an adjunct motif, was sporadically reused into imperial times and was prominently featured on aurei and denarii of Domitian. Perhaps it was useful for Hadrian, who spent more than half his reign outside Italy, to draw upon a traditional Roman image as a reminder of his connection to home while away on his travels across the empire. Later examples of the type include coins produced under Constantine I, who, from AD 330, issued a vast number of small coins celebrating Rome by pairing a helmeted head of Roma with the twins and she-wolf motif following his foundation of Constantinople as a new capital in the East. The coin type was probably inspired by ancient statues of the wolf and twins, which unfortunately do not survive but their existence is verified by several ancient accounts; Livy’s History of Rome (10.23) states that in 295 BC a statue was placed near the Ficus Ruminalis (the fig tree at the foot of the Palatine hill which the legend says is the spot where the twins landed having floated along the Tiber) and Cicero reports how a statue of Romulus being suckled by the she-wolf was struck by lightning in 65 BC (Against Catiline, 3.19).

Lot 581

Pescennius Niger AR Denarius. Antioch, AD 193-194. IMP CAES PESC NIGER IVST AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / IVSTITIA AVGVS, Justitia standing facing, head left, holding scales and cornucopiae. BMCRE -; RSC -; RIC -, cf. 45-47 for type. 3.09g, 18mm, 11h. Good Extremely Fine. Excellent metal quality, and engraved in fine style. A supremely attractive example of Pescennius' silver coinage.

Lot 662

Constantius II AR Ingot of 1 Roman Pound. Circa AD 337-361. Shaped like a double axe-head with flaring blades, thicker in the middle and thinner at the edges; stamped with an obverse die of Constantius II (D N CONSTANTIVS P F AVG, pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right); IVLI chiselled above / Blank; large silver plug, adding metal to raise the weight. Manhattan Sale III, 225 (also of Constantius II, and also with IVLI inscribed); for similar double-axe shaped ingots, cf. Collingwood and Wright, The Roman Inscriptions of Britain (1965), 2402.4, p. 30; cf. Guide to the Antiquities of Roman Britain (1964), p. 46, fig. 21.b.4 = BM OA.247; cf. Painter, Two Roman Silver Ingots from Kent, Archaeologia Cantiana Vol. 97 (1981), pp. 201-207. 343.45g, 117mm x 63mm (at widest point). As made. Extremely Rare, one of approximately 50 known such ingots, of which only a very few are in private hands. From a private European collection. Silver ingots like this one were used to pay soldiers and civil servants from around AD 305. The accession donative, at least between AD 361 and 518, is known to have been five gold solidi and one pound of silver per man for the rank and file (Ammianus Marcellinus, XX, 4.18). Officially, stamped ingots therefore occur fairly frequently in the fourth century, however ingots stamped at an imperial mint and bearing the emperor's portrait and titles are extremely rare; only six others are known - the Manhattan Sale example, and five all in the name of Magnentius (two found at Emona and three found at Kaiseraugst), all now in museum collections: see H.A. Cahn, Der spatromische Silberschatz von Kaiseraugst, 1984, pp. 324-329. The government department responsible for the collecting of taxes and levies was the Sacrae Largitiones, to which naturally fell the responsibility of also redistributing the gold and silver to the soldiers and officials. The Comes sacrarum largitionum "Count in charge of the sacred distributions" is possibly the IVLI named on this ingot, and the Manhattan Sale example.

Lot 691

Julius Nepos AV Tremissis. First reign. Ravenna, AD 474-475. D N IVL NEPOS P F AVG, draped and cuirassed bust right wearing plain single banded diadem / Elaborate cross potent terminating in pellets at points; around, wreath with crossed ties, jewel in bezel at apex, COMOB below. Cf. Lacam 70 (plain diadem, plain cross); RIC -, cf. 3214 (pearl-diadem, not plain diadem, plain cross); C. -, cf. 16 (same); cf. DOC 940 (same); Depeyrot -, cf. 40/1 (same). 1.51g, 13mm, 6h. Near Mint State. Apparently unique and unpublished type for Nepos, with a plain diadem, and highly elaborate cross within an exceptionally well engraved wreath for this period, evidencing a high level of competency on the part of the engraver which indicates production in the first reign of Nepos at the Imperial court of Ravenna. From the collection of Z.P., Austria; Privately purchased from old Swiss collection (includes collector's ticket). While many historians consider Romulus Augustus to have been the last Roman emperor in the West (see next lot), Julius Nepos’ claim to this dubious honour is no less strong. Elevated to the position of Augustus by the Eastern emperor Leo I in AD 474 in order to replace the usurper Glycerius, who had been raised to the vacant throne by the Burgundian Magister militum Gundobad, Julius Nepos was married to the niece of Leo I and was also the nephew of the sovereign governor of Dalmatia, Marcellinus, hence his agnomen of nepos - “nephew”. In January, before Nepos could move against Glycerius, Leo I died, and was succeeded by his grandson, the young Leo II, who chose his own father Zeno as co-emperor. While little is known of Glycerius, according to Ennodius, the emperor “made many measures for the public good”, and seems to have tried his best to remain on good terms with the East Roman Empire, making overtures for reconciliation and abstaining from choosing a second Consul in order to allow Leo II to be sole Consul for the year 474. Nonetheless, under Roman Law Glycerius’ elevation was illegal, as the Eastern emperor had the right to choose his co-emperor, and Zeno maintained the official position of Constantinople to deny recognition to Glycerius. Therefore, in the Spring of 474, when the ports which had been closed for the winter reopened, Nepos made to cross the Adriatic Sea to depose Glycerius, who may have temporarily left the Imperial Court at Ravenna and relocated to Rome to resist the invasion, where he minted an extremely rare silver issue claiming himself as Augustus along with Leo II and Zeno. However, by June Nepos had entered Ravenna and deposed Glycerius without bloodshed, perhaps because he had failed to receive the support of the Roman Senate and Gallo-Roman aristocracy, or because his Magister militum Gundobad was absent from Italy either to raise more troops in Gaul, or to receive the legacy of his father Gundioc as King of the Burgundians. In any case, Nepos spared Glycerius’ life, an act of clemency possibly prompted by Glycerius’ apparently benevolent rule and the respect he had shown to the Eastern emperors throughout his short reign, and he was sent to lead a life of religious service as Bishop of Salona. Nepos’ own reign was hardly longer than that that of his predecessor; in August of 475 his Magister militum Orestes took control of the government at Ravenna, forcing Nepos to flee by ship back to Dalmatia. Orestes then proceeded to enthrone his teenage son as the new emperor in the West, under the regnal name Romulus Augustus. Though deposed, Nepos continued to be recognised as the de jure Emperor of the West until his death in 480, whereupon Zeno formally abolished the division of the Empire, ending the last legal claim to the throne of the West Roman Empire.

Lot 755

Portugal. Sancho I (1185-1211) AV Morabitino (180 Dinheiros). Coimbra mint. SANCIVS REX PORTVGAIIS, stylized figure of King charging to right on warhorse, holding sword and cross-tipped sceptre / + IN NE PTRIS I FILII SPS SCIA, cross of five shields with a star in each angle. Friedberg 1; Almeida, Basto & Piombino 1; Gomes S1 04/09. 4.04g, 28mm, 6h. Mint State. Extremely Rare. From a private German collection. Sanchos I, Portugal’s second monarch, was born in Coimbra in 1154, son and successor of King Alfonso I and his wife Maud of Savoy. In 1170 Sanchos was knighted by his father and became second in command in both administrative and military matters. The independence of Portugal declared in 1139 was still contested by the kings of León and Castile. A marriage alliance between Sanchos and Dulce of Aragon, the sister of King Alfonso II, in 1774 secured military assistance from the Crown of Aragon to contain the expansionism of León and Castile. Following the death of his father, Sanchos became king in 1185. Sanchos dedicated much of his reign to political and administrative organisation of the new kingdom. Efforts to populate the remote northern Christian regions of Portugal earned Sanchos the nickname ‘the Populator’. The one notable military campaign of the reign was the conquering of the southern town of Silves in 1189 from the Almohads with the aid of Northern European crusaders, for which Sanchos added ‘King of Silves’ to his titles. The victory was short lived however, as the territory was soon regained by the Almohads in 1191. This exceptional morabitino is a remarkably rare example of the first gold coin of the kingdom of Portugal introduced by Sanchos during his reign. The new denomination was equal to the value of 180 silver dinheiros. The name morabitino was the nickname used by Christians in the Iberian Peninsula to describe the golden dinars struck by the Almoravids, which were similar in both metric and weight.

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