Thrace, Byzantion in alliance with Kalchedon AE 25mm. 300-200 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 Unpublished and unique; of great historical and numismatic importance.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.

Wreathed and veiled head of Demeter to right / ΒΥZΑNT ΚΑΛΧΑΔ, Poseidon seated to right, holding aphlaston with right hand and transverse trident with left; ΔΑ in inner right field. Schönert-Geiss 1257-62; HGC 3.2, 1428. 11.10gr, 27mm, 12h.

Very Fine.

Acquired on the UK art market before 2000. Property of an Essex, UK, gentleman.

Possibly Caria, uncertain mint or Ionia, Miletos. Forepart of roaring lion to left / Stellate pattern within incuse square. Unpublished in the standard references including HN Online. 0.98gr, 9mm.

Very Fine. Apparently unpublished and possibly unique.

From the collection of a London antiquarian, formed since the 1980s.

The fact that the present coin has the same reverse stellate pattern as the Diobols of Miletos (cf. SNG Kayhan I 462-75 and SNG Copenhagen 953) and some of the silver coins of the satraps of Caria (cf. HN Online 2926), leads us to attribute its origin to one of these two regions.