Lot 2600

Description

Macedon, Mende, (465-424 B.C., but c.450 B.C.), silver tetradrachm, (16.836 grams), obv. Dionysos reclining to left on the back of an ass standing right, he holds a kantharos in right hand, before him a crow perched on a vine branch, rev. MEND[A]I[O]N around linear square within which a vine with five bunches of grapes on vine, (S.1407 [£2000], Gaebler, Die Antiken Munzen Nord-Griechenlaands Vol.III [AMNG] No.21, Pl. XV, 29 [different dies], Noe [NN&M 27] No. 20-34, Plate III similar dies). Good very fine/very fine and very rare, an unpublished die combination.

A similar specimen in better condition, was present in the Bunker Hunt Sale of December 4, 1991 (lot 19, US $24,200), where it is illustrated in colour. Mende was famous in the ancient world as an exporter of wine, and presumably made her fine series of these silver tetradrachms from the surplus of her trade. The designs refer to the trade, the grape vine and bunches occupy the centre of the reverse, while Dionysus, the god of wine, reclines on his sacred animal, the ass and contemplates the cup of wine from which he has drunk. The significance of the crow on the reverse is mysterious as the crow is not associated with Dionysus in mythology. The date of c.450 B.C. is based on earlier coins being those only present in the Asyut hoard and a similar die being used that was overstruck on a coin of Gela c.450-440 B.C.