Persia. Achaemenid Empire, Time of Darius II to Artaxerxes II AR Siglos. Circa 420-375 BC.

Uncertain mint. Head to right, wearing bashlyk / ΥΠΑΙoΡo[...], Nike standing facing, head to left, holding long palm in extended right hand. Unrecorded ruler but cf. Roma Numismatics, E-81, 607 ('ΥΠΑΙ' legend on coin of Ariarathes) and HGC 9, 493b (similar reverse of issue of Antiochos III). 5.00gr, 17mm, 11h.

Good Very Fine. Unpublished and unique; of great historical and numismatic importance.

Ex 'V' gentleman's collection, Switzerland. From the property of a North London, UK, gentleman.

It is not rare when a coin can be the only evidence about the existence of a person or city from the past. On this particular coin, it is the inscription of YΠΑΙΟΡΟ that makes it difficult to attribute. No city or ruler is recorded with this name and the only ancillary evidence we have is its similarity to some other types. First of all, the style of the leather helmet (called bashlyk, common for the Cappadocian bronzes) and the lack of the royal title, refer us to the king of Cappadocia, Ariaramnes. The Roma's example is the only other example who bears the abbreviated legend YΠΑΙ but on a coin of Ariarathes. On the other hand, the reverse type and style of legend resemble the bronze coins of Antiochos III struck in Southern Coele-Syria (SC 1100a; HGC 9, 493b). It is not certain whether the name refers to a city or to a ruler. Bronze coins of Ariaramnes can have the name of the mint abbreviated (cf. Simonetta 9a&b), but it is considered unusual in this period to have a bronze coin with a full ethnic and the portrait of the ruler. It is very likely that we are dealing with the name of a Cappadocian ruler who was active for a short period in the second half of the 3rd to the first part of the 2nd century and participated in the recovery of the outlying provinces of the Seleucid Empire from Antiochos III.

Alexandria mint. Diademed and draped bust to right / KΛEOΠATPAC BACIΛICCHC, eagle standing to left on thunderbolt; cornucopia to left, M to right. Svoronos 1872; Weiser 184-5; SNG Copenhagen 422-4; Noeske 383. 9.47gr, 21mm, 12h.

Near Very Fine.

From the collection of a gentleman, acquired on the London art market in the 1990s.

ΑΠΗΜΑΝΤΟΣ (Apemantos), president of the agonothetai. Head of Athena to right, wearing laureate and triple-crested Attic helmet / AΘΗΝΑΣ ΙΛΙΑΔΟΣ, The Palladion: Athena Ilias standing to right, wearing polos and chiton, holding distaff in left hand, filleted spear over right shoulder; to right, owl standing to right, head facing; monogram of ΔΗΜΗΤΡIOY to inner left; ΑΠΗΜΑΝΤΟΥ in exergue. Ellis-Evans dies O8/R- (unlisted monogram and reverse die); Bellinger T43-4 var. (same obverse die as illustration; different monogram). 14.97gr, 37mm, 1h.

Near Very Fine. Very rare with this monogram.

From the collection of a gentleman, acquired on the London art market in the 1990s.