DYNASTS OF LYCIA. Kybernis (?), circa 500-480 BC. Stater (Silver, 20 mm, 9.44 g). Forepart of a boar to left, ending in a pelleted vertical line; on the shoulder, K
YB.
Rev. Irregular incuse punch. Müseler III, 3 (
this coin). SNG von Aulock 4045 var. (with KY on shoulder). Traité II, 1, 792 (
same dies). An exceptional example of this important issue, lightly toned and very well struck. Extremely fine.
From the Kleinkunst Collection and from the William and Louise Fielder Collection, Triton VIII, 11 January 2005, 494, ex Peus 360, 27-30 April 1999, 5 and Lanz 48, 22 May 1989, 354.
The legend KYB on this coin and KY on others may refer to Kybernis, son of Sikas, an early Lycian dynast who is attested by Herodot to have participated in the Persian invasion of Greece (Hdt. VII, 98) and who was likely the owner of the famous Harpy Tomb in Xanthos. If this is true, this is among the earliest, if not the earliest, Lycian coins to name a local dynast, struck in a time when the Greek alphabet was just about to be replaced by the newly invented local Lycian script.
