Live auction - bgr_756205 - CYRENAICA - CYRENE Tétradrachme

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Estimate :	9 500 €
Price :	13 640 €
Maximum bid :	15 000 €
End of the sale :	07 March 2023 14:25:47
bidders :	5 bidders

Type : Tétradrachme

Date: c. 485-475 AC.

Mint name / Town : Cyrène, Cyrénaïque

Metal : silver

Diameter : 23 mm

Orientation dies : 3 h.

Weight : 16,91 g.

Rarity : R3

Slab

NGC :

Coments on the condition:

Monnaie centrée présentant un très joli revers. Usure régulière. Patine grise de collection

Catalogue references :

BMC.16 - GC.- - Cop.1163 - B.- - Müller- - Cop.1163 - Rosen769

Predigree :

Exemplaire sous coque NGC Ch VF (Strike 4/5, Surface 2/5) Avec son certificat d'exportation de bien culturel n°225113 délivré par le ministère français de la Culture

Obverse

Obverse description : Plant de silphium vu de face, surmonté de deux feuilles.

Reverse

Reverse description : Fruit de silphium entouré de deux dauphins dans un carré creux ; globules dans les coins.

Commentary

Dans le trésor d’Asyt (Égypte, Delta) qui aurait contenu environ 900 pièces dispersées avec 70 ateliers différents dont l’enfouissement est fixé vers 475 avant J.-C. (TPQ) comprenait 42 pièces de Cyrénaïque dont dix-huit statères de Cyrène et trois tétradrachmes de notre type avec les dauphins de le même sens n° 833-835. Semble de mêmes coins que les exemplaires n° 833 et 834, pl. XXXI du trésor d’Asyt.

Historical background

CYRENAICA - CYRENE

(6th - 5th centuries BC)

Cyrene, a port city located in Cyrenaica, was founded by Dorian settlers from the island of Thera around 630 BC. They were headed by Battus, the mythical ancestor of the Battides who reigned over Cyrene for two centuries. The city was famous for the cultivation and harvesting of silphium, one of the most sought-after medicinal plants of antiquity, which has now disappeared. The city, independent, was in the Egyptian orbit. It did not fall under Persian rule. The city, after the death of Arcésilaus IV, the last descendant of the Battides, Cyrene became a democracy in the middle of the 5th century BC..