Description
Ca. 510-490 BC. AR stater, 11.98 gr.
Obv: griffin seated to the right, with left forelegraised; vines and bunch of grapes in lower right field.
Rev: quadripartite incuse square, bunch of grapes in each quadrant.
Ref: Balcer in SNR 47 (1968), 15 (same dies); Boston 1938 (same dies). Ex Künker 193 (2011), lot 244.
Nearly extremely fine.
Griffins lived at the end of the earth and protected the treasure of Apollo, according to the ancient Greeks. “The place where the griffins live and the gold is found is a grim and terrible desert” according to the Greek author Aelian. The place can be identified as the Altai Mountains in the Gobi desert where, apart from gold, many skeletons of the Protoceratops-species have been found.
