DYNASTS OF LYCIA. Kybernis (?), circa 500-480 BC. Stater (Silver, 20 mm, 9.62 g). Forepart of a boar to right, ending in a pelleted vertical line; on the shoulder, KYB. Rev. Irregular incuse punch. BMC -. Müseler -. Traité -. Apparently unpublished with boar to right. A few marks and metal impurities, otherwise, good very fine.


The legend, KYB, on this coin 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.