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A 1920s lady's platinum and diamond wristlet watch by J W Benson of Ludgate Hill, London, having a radially brushed silver face in tonneau shaped case, the latter stamped PLATINUM and numbered 4558, the bezel set with ten diamond brilliants, on a 9 ct white gold flexible fine-link bracelet strap, in original gilt-tooled blue leather presentation case
Burma, P 25b, Linzmayer B503b, Jhunjhunwalla 5.9.1B, Military Administration of Burma, 1 Rupee, (1945). Obverse of Indian 1-rupee silver coin with portrait of King George VI at upper right on front. Signature Charles Ernest Jones. Reverse of Indian 1-rupee silver coin dated 1940 at upper left on back. Overprint on India P 25d. , # D/10 590954 A, PMG 66 EPQ, Gem UNC.
Serbia, P NL, Barac NL, Straus S1X2, National Bank of Serbia, 2005, SECURENCY TESTNOTE. Portrait of Milena Pavlovic-Barillia at center on front and at left on back. NO VALUE SPECIMEN at lower left on front. Black vertical SPECIMEN at left on back. Clear intaglio paintbrushes over silver foil at upper right on front., # AA 0002005, UNC.
Swimming medallions, awarded to one CP Mackay between 1922 and 1938, viz. two silver, cast for Romford Town Swimming Club; three silver, four silver and blue enamel, four bronze and blue enamel and three bronze, cast for Port of London Authority Swimming Club; one bronze, two silver, one silver and blue enamel, cast for Ilford Swimming Club; two silver and blue enamel, respectively cast for Essex County Swimming and Water Polo Association and Public Authority of London
Italy. The Roman Republic (1798-1799), Siege of Ancona AV ‘Scudo Romano’. Ancona, 1799. PIVS SEXTVS PONT M A VI, oval coat of arms of the Braschi in a rich cornice decorated with cornucopiae and shell, surmounted by a radiant papal tiara and crossed keys / AVXILIVM DE SANCTO 1780, veiled personification of Holy Church, with radiant head, seated to front on clouds, holding keys of St Peter in right hand and extending left to a small domed temple; in left inner field, mint mark A; below, small coat of arms of Mons. Giuseppe Vai. Plain edge. M. Dubbini & G. Mancinelli, Storia delle monete di Ancona, Ancona 2009, 7.4 and p. 206, first paragraph (this coin); M. Traina, Gli assedi e le loro monete (491-1861), Bologna 1976, ‘Ancona, asseddio austro-russo-turco del 1799’, pp. 55-75, 3. For related obsidional silver issues of Ancona cf. Muntoni IV, p. 212, 20 pl. 218; Serafini III, 855; Pagani p. 262 note; Berman 3001 (Pius VI); Gigante 2005, p. 373, 1; KM 10. 37.20g, 41mm, 6h. Fleur De Coin. Unique and of great numismatic interest. The allied siege and naval blockade of Ancona from 18 March - 13 November 1799 was effected by a squadron of 8 Russian and Turkish ships, and on land, by an army of troops from Austria, Russia and Turkey. This was the occasion for the remarkable obsidional issue by Ancona of silver coins utilising dies previously used for silver scudi and half scudi from the Rome mint in the name of Pius VI, as well as local copper 2 and 1 Baiocchi pieces. According to the Abbot Antonio Leoni, in Ancona Ilustrata opera dell’Abbate Antonio Leoni anconitano colle risposte ai sigg. Peruzzi, Pignetti etc, e il compendio delle memorie storiche d’Ancona, Ancona 1832 (Archivio comunale di Ancona fasc. 2920, p. 100), the new mint was housed in a confiscated collegiate church and entrusted on 3 Fiorile (11 April) to the chief mint master of the new Roman Republic, Luigi Severi. The emergency mint was operational by the end of Germile (about 19 April), and with the seizure of church property and forced contributions from wealthy private citizens, including the Jewish community, it began to strike coins in bronze, silver and gold. Leoni op. cit., p. 376, expressly states that gold was struck: (‘Zecca: ove fu battuta la moneta d rame, e di bronzo, da’ argento, e d’ oro: esendo zecchiere il signor Luigi romano. Le monete d’oro, e d’ argento (piasre e doppie) furono coniate simile alle pontifice, e di eguale purezza.’). The bronze coinage was struck from the bell metal recovered from the local churches, the ‘voluntary’ silver was debased and struck from modified Pius VI dies with a small mint mark ‘A’ added to the field of the reverse die. However, none of the gold coinage has survived except for the above specimen which according to Dubbini and Mancinelli, p. 206: ‘probabilmente si tratta di un omaggio fatto durante l’assedio a qualche personaggio di rilievo’ (‘it is probably a donative made during the siege for a very important person’). The ancient Doric city of Ancona was founded by Syracusan exiles (Strabo v.4.3.2 [241]) in the early fourth century BC on an elbow-shaped promontory (Ἀγκών), which gave the town its name, situated on an excellent natural harbour. Under the Roman Empire the city became a municipium and base for the fleet; Trajan improved the port, where he built nearby a splendid triumphal arch celebrating the Dacian victory. Under Byzantium, Ancona became the first city of the Maritime Pentapolis, governed by Ravenna, but with considerable autonomy. The seat of a Carolingian march, it eventually became a semi-independent maritime republic under papal patronage, rich in commerce with Constantinople. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Ancona’s fortunes waned. The Medici pope Clement VII seized the city in 1532, bringing it under direct papal rule. In February 1797 Ancona was occupied by the French and on 19 November became the revolutionary Anconine Republic (Repubblica Anconitana) and part of Napoleon’s newly proclaimed First Roman Republic (Repubblica Romana). Ancona soon became target for the anti-French alliance and became the subject of a well documented siege. The long and obstinate defence of the besieged obtained for the defenders, as it always should do, the most honourable of terms; and General Monnier and his troops were highly complimented for their bravery by the Austrian General Frœlich. Ancona became once again a papal state (1799-1808), part of the Italian Kingdom of Napoleon (1808-1814), yet again a papal state (1814-1848), a part of the second revolutionary Roman Republic (1848-1849), and finally again a papal state (1849-1860), before its entry in the Kingdom of Italy in 29 September 1860.
Sicily, Syracuse AR Tetradrachm. Second Democracy, circa 415-406 BC. Dies signed by Euth(edemos?) on obverse and Phrygillos on reverse. Nude Eros driving galloping quadriga to right, holding reins in both hands; above, Nike flying to left, crowning him with wreath; in exergue, Skylla swimming to right, holding trident over shoulder, flanked by EYΘ and fish to right and leaping dolphin to left / Grain-wreathed head of the nymph Arethusa to left, wearing looped earring and necklace; ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΟΝ and four swimming dolphins around, ΦPYΓIΛΛΟΣ in two lines below. Tudeer 47; SNG ANS 274; Kraay-Hirmer 107; Rizzo pl. XLII, 12; Jameson 801; de Luynes 1169 (all from same dies). 16.56g, 26mm, 11h. Good Extremely Fine. A highly desirable type in exceptional condition of preservation. This spectacular coin is part of a brief series of coins engraved at Syracuse, Akragas and a mint believed to be Kamarina as Syracuse and her allies basked in the glory of their brilliant and total victory in the autumn of 413 BC over the Athenian expeditionary force commanded by Nikias, Demosthenes and Eurymedon. Despite the traditionally broad dating assigned to this issue (415-405) we may deduce the date of its production on the basis of several considerations: namely, the unusual attributes of this series, the availability of metal, and the requirement for coinage. This issue, Tudeer 46 (which shares the same obverse die) and Tudeer 51 share one highly unusual feature: Nike carries not the usual palm branch, but an aphlaston; a hemilitron attributed to Kamarina struck in the same period also displays an aphlaston as the sole reverse type. The extraordinary use of such a symbol at this time can only refer to the great naval victories won in late August and early September of 413. In the former engagement, Eurymedon was killed and many of the Athenian ships were pushed on to the shore where Syracusan-allied land forces commanded by the Spartan general Gylippos was waiting for them. With the Syracusans now blockading the harbour the Athenians on 9 September readied themselves for one last battle, but the cramped conditions in the harbour prevented them from manoeuvring and eventually forced them back onto the shore again. Abandoning their ships, they retreated to their camp leaving the Syracusans to burn or tow away what little remained of their once great fleet. This hypothesis is further reinforced by the presence of Skylla in the exergue, playfully chasing a fish with her trident over her shoulder, while a dolphin follows in her wake. This too is a symbol unique to this single Syracusan die, but not to the period: Akragas at this time also issues a famous and unprecedented type (Kraay-Hirmer 175) bearing Skylla and the Akragantine crab in great detail upon the reverse, while two majestic eagles stand proudly on the obverse, tearing at a dead hare. It has already been remarked elsewhere that that type most likely commemorates the defeat of the Athenian force (see U. Westermark, Skylla on the Coins of Akragas, DN pp. 215-223). The unusual depiction of Arethusa wreathed with grain on both this issue and Tudeer 46 may also be explained by the lifting of the blockade of the city and the threat of starvation being dispelled as food was able to be once again freely imported. The spoils from the annihilated Athenian army would have provided ample metal on which to strike this celebratory issue (the Athenian reinforcements in 414 alone brought 300 talents – nearly 8 metric tonnes of silver). Indeed, though the coins are now extremely rare, the issue must have been vast judging by the highly worn die states we see on the surviving specimens. By 406/5 however, silver was in sufficiently short supply that Akragas, Kamarina and even Syracuse resorted to emergency gold issues. Excepting the great victory of 413 there appear to be no other occasions between 415 and 405 that would warrant the striking of so special a coinage and in such numbers. During the Carthaginian invasion of 410-409 neither Syracuse nor Akragas directly engaged the invaders, and even after the destruction of Selinos and Himera, their reactions were mild. Syracuse chose to quietly build up its fleet, while Akragas slowly expanded its army. Neither city had cause therefore in this period to expend sums as great as those which would have been required following the siege of Syracuse – soldiers, mercenaries and allies never require payment as great as when they have just concluded a successful war.
Sicily, Syracuse AV Dilitron. Emergency issue of the Second Democracy, winter 406/5 BC. Obverse die signed by 'IM...'. Head of Athena left, wearing crested Attic helmet decorated with serpent, palmette and elaborate spiral tendrils, [ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΩΝ before, IM below truncation of neck] / Aegis with gorgoneion at centre. Boehringer, Essays Thompson, pl. 38, 12 = Hess Leu Sale (27 March 1956), lot 210 (same obverse die); Manhattan Sale I, 28 (same dies). 1.76g, 10mm, 7h. Near Mint State. Extremely Rare; one of very few known specimens - only one other on CoinArchives. The year 406 marked a desperate time for the Greeks in Sicily. A great Carthaginian invasion of Sicily had commenced in the Spring to punish the Greeks for having raided the Punic territories of Motya and Panormos. 60,000 soldiers under Hannibal Mago in 1,000 transports along with 120 triremes sailed for Sicily, where despite a plague that ravaged the ranks of the Carthaginian army and felled its commander, they successfully besieged and sacked Akragas, the wealthiest of all the cities of Sicily. After razing the city to the ground, the Carthaginians under their new commander Himilco marched east to Gela. Despite a spirited defence of the city by the defenders and the arrival of a relief force of 34,000 men and 50 triremes under Dionysios of Syracuse, the city fell after a poorly coordinated and unsuccessful attack launched by the Greeks. As Dionysios retreated from Gela first to Kamarina and then back to Syracuse, both of these now indefensible cities were sacked and levelled by Himilco's forces. It was against this backdrop of a desperate fight for survival that many emergency coinages were issued in Sicily. Gold was scarce in the Greek world and tended to be used only for emergency coinages, as in that famous instance when Athens in the last decade of the fifth century resorted to melting the gold from the statues of Nike on the Akropolis when cut off from their silver mines at Laurion. Gela, Akragas, Kamarina and Syracuse all issued emergency gold coinage in 406/5 BC, without doubt to pay the mercenaries they had hired in their doomed resistance to Himilco. The master engraver 'IM...' responsible for this coin is also known to have engraved Syracusan tetradrachms around this period (see Tudeer 67).
Sicily, Syracuse AV Stater. Agathokles, circa 306-289 BC. Head of Athena right, wearing crested Corinthian helmet decorated with griffin, single-pendant earring and necklace / AΓAΘOKΛEOΣ BAΣIΛEOΣ, winged thunderbolt, monogram below. BMC 416; SNG Copenhagen -. 5.70g, 17mm, 7h. Good Extremely Fine. Some minor scratches. Rare symbol. This piece is from a short-lived issue known from six obverse and seven reverse dies with numerous interlinkings, which suggest a specific occasion for its striking. Three alternatives proposed are the assumption of the royal title by Agathokles in 304 BC, the marriage of his daughter to Pyrrhos of Epeiros in 297, or renewed preparations for war against Carthage - the last of which seems the most plausible; indeed we see here a type familiar to Greek mercenaries that at once recalls the gold staters of Alexander the Great, and the silver staters of Alexander of Epeiros.
Islands off Thessaly, Skyros AR Stater. Circa 480 BC. Two goats back to back on either side of fig leaf, heads reverted / Stellate floral pattern within square incuse. J.M. Balcer, SNR 57 (1978), p. 96, 6, pl. 25 (same dies). 8.07g, 27mm. Very Fine. Extremely Rare, Balcer cites only 2 examples: ANS, New York (Skyros hoard. IGCH 31) and Athens, Numismatic Museum. This didrachm and other silver coins of the same type are all very rare and were often overstruck on Attic-weight coins of Akanthos. Since one such coin was found on Skyros (Balcer, no. 46) and six others were in the possession of an inhabitant of the island, it would appear that they were struck on Skyros prior to the arrival of Kimon, c. 475 BC. See J.N. Svoronos, JIAN 3 (1900), pp. 39-46 and Balcer, pp. 69-101. In the early fifth century an expedition was mounted to the island of Skyros under the command of the Athenian general Kimon, ostensibly under the auspices of the Delian League. The conquest of the island is mentioned by Thucydides (1.98), but Plutarch’s version in his Life of Kimon is much more detailed (Life of Kimon, 8). According to Plutarch the island was inhabited by non-Greek Dolopians whose constant plundering of ships, including those which were trading with them, eventually resulted in a request for Athenian intervention, addressed directly to Kimon, whose expedition ‘cleared the sea of pirates’. To complete this heroic effort, Kimon also fulfilled the edict of the Delphic oracle by ‘discovering’ the bones of the Athenian hero Theseus on the island – who, it was said, had been murdered by the jealous and fearful king Lycomedes – and returning them to Athens. Plutarch relates that he identified as the remains of Theseus “a coffin of a great corpse with a bronze spear-head by its side and a sword.” Thucydides, who was to some extent a contemporary of Kimon, and whose account precedes that of Plutarch by over four centuries, is much less elaborate in his description of the invasion, and simply tells us that the Athenians enslaved the local population and established a colony of Athenian citizens there. De Souza (Piracy in the Graeco-Roman World, Cambridge University Press, 1999) points out that Plutarch’s account is the only one to mention piracy (Diorodus and Pausanias also cover the invasion of Skyros), and it is unconvincing, and appears very much like an attempt to justify Athenian aggression. Dawe (Scandal at Skyros: The Delian League, Plutarch and the Maligning of the Dolopians, Studia Antiqua 6.1, 2008) arrives at the same conclusion, and contends that the real purpose of the expedition was to decrease Persian influence by removing a Medizing people from the Aegean, to expand the influence of Athens, and to add to his own political capital by returning the bones of the Athenian hero Theseus. Modern historians have tended to take Plutarch’s account at face value, and not question either his facts or motives, or why his version should differ markedly from those of Thucydides, Diodorus or Pausanias. Given no further evidence of piracy other than Plutarch’s word for it nearly half a millennium after the event, it seems probable that rather than being the product of a pirate gang, this coin represents one of the last remnants of a people exterminated by Athenian imperialism; a people who in the days of myth had supposedly sheltered the young Achilles at the request of his mother Thetis.
Macedon, Chalkidian League AV Quarter Stater. Olynthos, circa 350-348 BC. Dikaios, magistrate. Laureate head of Apollo right / Kithara, XAΛKIΔEΩN around; EΠI ΔΙΚΑΙΟΥ below. Apparently unique and unpublished; for epimeletes Dikaios, cf. Robinson-Clement, Excavations at Olynthos IX 1938, pl. 17, 138-9; for Eudoridas cf. pl. 17, group W, A IV - 137. 2.15g, 11mm, 5h. Good Very Fine. Apparently unique and unpublished. The epimeletes Dikaios' coins are previously only recorded in silver, though these have obverse die links with the silver staters of Eudoridas, whose gold staters are well attested, though very rare.
Kingdom of Macedon, Alexander III 'the Great' AV Distater. Amphipolis, circa 325-323 BC. Head of Athena right, wearing triple crested Corinthian helmet decorated with coiled serpent / Nike standing to left, holding wreath in outstretched right hand and stylis over left shoulder; thunderbolt to left, ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ to right. Price 163; Müller 1; NGSA 7, 173 = HD Rauch 89, 1080 (same dies); for the date, see Troxell, p. 128. 17.13g, 24mm, 7h. Good Extremely Fine. Of beautiful style, and exceptionally well preserved for the issue. Alexander's stunning conquest of the Persian Achaemenid Empire delivered into his hands a vast wealth of proportions so incredible that it was scarcely believable. At the time of the death of Alexander's father Philip II in 336 BC the Macedonian state was indebted to the sum of five hundred talents of silver. Yet less than five years later Alexander was the wealthiest man on the face of the earth and the Macedonian kingdom spanned some three thousand miles at its greatest length. The treasuries of Susa, Babylon and Persepolis rendered a treasure estimated at some one hundred and eighty thousand talents. A significant quantity of the captured gold was sent back to Amphipolis where a part was used for the striking of the Alexandrine distaters, the heaviest gold coins the world had yet known. Valued at forty silver drachms, this new denomination meant that Alexander's discharged veteran soldiers could be paid out their one talent in 120 distaters. In practice, the relatively low output of gold distaters compared with the staters seems to suggest that perhaps they fulfilled a more ceremonial than practical role.
Kingdom of Macedon, Ptolemy Keraunos AR Tetradrachm. In the name and types of Lysimachos of Thrace. Lysimacheia, 281-280 BC. Diademed head of the deified Alexander right, with horn of Ammon / Athena Nikephoros seated left, left arm resting on shield, transverse spear in background; BAΣIΛEΩΣ to right, ΛYΣIMAXOY being crowned by Nike to left, to inner left, head of lion left above elephant standing left; ΘE monogram on throne. W. Hollstein. “Münzen des Ptolemaios Keraunos” in SNR 74 (1995), p.14, fig. 1 [= Pozzi collection 1169] (same dies); Boutin, Collection Pozzi, 2627; cf. Hollstein p. 14, fig. 2 [= ex Leu sale 42, 1987, 163] (same obverse die). 16.93g, 32mm, 12h. Good Very Fine. Extremely Rare - the third known example. Now known from three silver tetradrachms and two gold staters, this extremely rare and short-lived issue has been convincingly argued by W. Hollstein to have been struck under Ptolemy Keraunos, the eldest son of Ptolemy I of Egypt and the assassin of Seleukos I. Forced to leave Egypt after his younger half-brother was first named heir apparent and then ascended the throne in 282 as Ptolemy II, Keraunos travelled to the court of Lysimachos where his half-sister Arsinoe was queen and his sister Lysandra resided, married to Lysimachos’ son Agathokles. After Agathokles was executed for treason - an accusation encouraged by Arsinoe in order to position her own sons by Lysimachos to inherit the kingdom - Keraunos and Lysandra travelled east to court aid from Seleukos, prompting the expedition that began shortly afterwards and ended with the death of Lysimachos at the Battle of Korupedion in 281. Keraunos moved quickly to secure his own position and assassinated Seleukos. Though known as a personal symbol of Seleukos, the elephant on this issue is thought to refer to the war elephants supplied by Keraunos to his ally Pyrrhos of Epeiros for his Italian expedition, while the use of the types of Lysimachos is a clear indication that his intent was to portray himself as the successor of his former protector. That this type was struck for such a brief period is due to the death of Keraunos in battle against the invading Celts, as the collapse of Lysimachos’ kingdom opened the way for their southern migration.
Ionia, Phokaia EL Hekte. Circa 560-545 BC. Head of African left, seal downward behind / Quadripartite incuse square punch. Bodenstedt 24; SNG Copenhagen -; BMC -; SNG von Aulock -; Boston MFA -. 2.56g, 10mm. Near Extremely Fine. Extremely Rare. Though Aethiopians - the Greek name for all Africans characterised by dark skin and short hair - feature regularly in Greek art, their depiction on coins is by contrast very infrequent. We know that the Greeks were well acquainted with black Africans, since they appear often in Greek literature as mythical or semi-mythical characters and warriors; it appears that they were known in the Greek world as early as the Minoan period, where they were employed by Minoan commanders as auxiliary troops. Indeed, if we may believe Quintus of Smyrna, the Greeks encountered black Africans in the army of Memnon at Troy. Black African contingents also formed a part of Xerxes' army and according to some scholars fought at Marathon (see Frazer, J. G., 1913: Pausanias' Description of Greece, II. Macmillan, London, p 434; and Graindor, P., 1908: Les Vases au Nègre. Musée Belge, p 29). Of the surviving art objects representing black Africans, many appear to be the work of artists who modelled from life. These depictions invariably display an astonishing degree of individuality, vitality, and energy, presenting scenes and designs that appealed to the craftsmen; one might surmise that the exotic appearance of such individuals presented the artist with a challenge to represent the distinctive features of blacks, whose aesthetic qualities are readily conveyed in pieces such as the present hekte. The closest parallels we find in the numismatic record for this portrait can be seen in the silver staters of an uncertain (possibly Karian) mint that have appeared in 2008 (Gemini IV, 195) and 2009 (NAC 52, 177) that bear an incuse head of a negroid man, and a small issue of silver fractions on Lesbos that also show a male head, this time in relief. Both however are highly stylised, and may not necessarily represent the features of a particular individual.
Ionia, Smyrna AR Tetradrachm. Circa 155-145 BC. Head of Tyche right, wearing turreted crown / ΣΜΥΡ-ΝΑΙΩΝ over monogram, all within laurel wreath. Milne, Autonomous 141; Milne, Silver obv. die A; SNG Copenhagen -; BMC 4 (same obv. die). 16.37g, 35mm, 12h. Extremely Fine. Exceptionally sharp reverse with none of the usual flatness. From the J.T.B. Collection; Ex Roma Numismatics VIII, 28 September 2014, lot 598.
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