CYCLADES, Delos. Circa 480-470 BC. Stater (Silver, 19 mm, 7.89 g). Kithara with seven cords; above, Δ. Rev. Quadripartite incuse square. Asyut -. Sheedy 22 (O19/-) = Svoronos, Athens, pl. 105, 7 = Weber 4655. Extremely rare. A boldly struck and fresh example. Test cut on the obverse, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.


Delos was famous throughout antiquity for its sanctuary of Apollo: it was here, in the center of the Cyclades, where Leto had given birth to him and his sister Artemis. The tiny island was considered sacred among the Greeks and formed as the religious center of the Ionian city-states of the Cyclades. It also served as the meeting place and treasury of the eponymous Delian League in 478-454 BC and the First Nesiotic League in circa 314/3-mid 3rd century, before being declared a free port by the Romans in 166 BC.

The Archaic coinage of Delos is extremely rare: Sheedy, in 2006, knew of twenty-eight examples, of which eighteen were staters. Four more examples have appeared since his publication, with this piece bringing the total to twenty-three, of which at least fourteen are in museums. All of the Archaic coins from Delos feature a kithara on the obverse, a device, as Sheedy puts it, 'singularly appropriate for Apollo's island'.