Lot 3532

Description

Ionia, Teos, (520-510 B.C.), silver didrachm, (11.625 grams), obv. Griffin seated to right with raised left foreleg with interesting die break or symbol on right foreleg, rev. incuse square of rough form, (cf.S.3512, cf.Balcer [SNR 1968, Vol.47], Group I No.4, similar dies; Asyut Hoard 624 [this coin], cf.SNG Von Aulock 2251). Nearly very fine, the dies only known from this example, extremely rare.

Ex. Asyut hoard c.1970, No.624 (p.87, Pl.XXIII, this coin illustrated, only five coins of Teos in the Asyut hoard buried c.475 B.C.). The Asyut hoard was one of the most remarkable and most important hoards of ancient Greek coins ever found. Some 900 pieces were traced by the authors Martin Price and Nancy Waggoner and described and illustrated over 32 plates in their book 'Archaic Greek Silver Coinage the `Asyut' Hoard', (London, 1975). The consequence of this find provided a comprehensive view of the Greek Coinage held by a single individual at the time of the hoard's burial c.475 B.C. The analysis of this find and the coins from the 70 mints around the entire Mediterranean (in this book), has had important implications to the arrangement and chronology of archaic Greek coinage. The hoard was found at Asyut in Southern Egypt.