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Lot 404
KYRENAICA, Kyrene. Circa 490-475 BC. AR Drachm (12.5mm, 3.37 g). Asiatic standard. Good VF.
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Starting Bid: $600
Live Auction
Triton XXVIII
Live bidding began Jan 14, 2025 at 9:00 AM EST
Description
KYRENAICA, Kyrene. Circa 490-475 BC. AR Drachm (12.5mm, 3.37 g). Asiatic standard. Two silphion fruits set base-to-base; pellet between, leaves at sides between / Facing head of lion within incuse square. Buttrey, Coins, Period I, Group 2, 87; SNG Copenhagen 1172; BMC 38. Find patina, deposits. Good VF. Well struck on a broad flan.
Kyrene was the capital city of Kyrenaika on the North African coast immediately west of Egypt. Dorian Greek colonists founded Kyrene in 631 BC. The region played host to a wild-growing plant called silphion (or silphium), with a thick, striated and hollow stalk, broad horizontal branches, and yellow flowers that grew in bunches. The Greeks ascribed near magical properties to both the plant itself and its sap, called laserpicium by the Romans. Silphion had countless uses: a salve for burns, a treatment for hemorrhoids, cure for tetanus, and a seasoning for food, and was also described as having various properties associated with love and sex. From its earliest coinage, circa 525 BC, Kyrene featured the silphion plant and its heart-shaped fruit on its coin designs. Ancient sources state that the Kyreneans found silphion impossible to cultivate and could only gather it from the fields where it grew wild. In the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods, over-harvesting and grazing by domesticated animals allegedly drove it to extinction. Pliny reported that the last known stalk of silphion was given to the Emperor Nero “as a curiosity.” A close relative of silphion likely exists today in the giant fennel plant, ferula communis, which still grows in North Africa and elsewhere.
The final winners of all Triton XXVIII lots will be determined at the live public sale that will be held on 14-15 January 2025.
Triton XXVIII – Session Two – Lot 288–557 will be held Tuesday afternoon, 14 January 2025 beginning at 2:00 PM ET.
Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.
We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.
Kyrene was the capital city of Kyrenaika on the North African coast immediately west of Egypt. Dorian Greek colonists founded Kyrene in 631 BC. The region played host to a wild-growing plant called silphion (or silphium), with a thick, striated and hollow stalk, broad horizontal branches, and yellow flowers that grew in bunches. The Greeks ascribed near magical properties to both the plant itself and its sap, called laserpicium by the Romans. Silphion had countless uses: a salve for burns, a treatment for hemorrhoids, cure for tetanus, and a seasoning for food, and was also described as having various properties associated with love and sex. From its earliest coinage, circa 525 BC, Kyrene featured the silphion plant and its heart-shaped fruit on its coin designs. Ancient sources state that the Kyreneans found silphion impossible to cultivate and could only gather it from the fields where it grew wild. In the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods, over-harvesting and grazing by domesticated animals allegedly drove it to extinction. Pliny reported that the last known stalk of silphion was given to the Emperor Nero “as a curiosity.” A close relative of silphion likely exists today in the giant fennel plant, ferula communis, which still grows in North Africa and elsewhere.
The final winners of all Triton XXVIII lots will be determined at the live public sale that will be held on 14-15 January 2025.
Triton XXVIII – Session Two – Lot 288–557 will be held Tuesday afternoon, 14 January 2025 beginning at 2:00 PM ET.
Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.
We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.
