CILICIA OR THE LEVANTE. Uncertain. Late 5th to 4th centuries BC. Hemiobol (?) (Silver, 7 mm, 0.30 g). Eagle flying left, holding branch (?) in its talons; above, winged solar disk. Rev. Diademed and bearded male head (of the Persian Great King?) to right in incuse. Göktürk -. Klein -. SNG Levante -. SNG Paris -. Cf. Roma E-Auction 99 (2022), 336 (reverse to right). Apparently unpublished and highly unusual. Very fine.


Based on the iconography of this piece - a bearded head of the obverse and a solar disk on the reverse - and its small module, an attribution to Cilicia or the Levante is likely, although the lack of an ethnic hampers further attribution. The attribution to Magnesia ad Maeandrum (let alone Archepolis!) proposed in the Roma sale, and followed by Naumann, on the other hand, is almost as improbable as the suggestion that this is some sort of a minting error. In fact, the convex pearl rim and the incuse image on the reverse make it abundantly clear that we are dealing with a deliberate design, not a brockage mint error from an otherwise unattested type.