Thrace - Maronée
Statère (c.386-347) - Magistrat Callicratès.
Très rare et magnifique exemplaire - Magnifique patine médaillier.
Exemplaire de la vente Gorny & Mosch 133 du 11 octobre 2004, N°104 et
de la vente Gorny & Mosch 159 du 8 octobre 2007, N°61.
11.40g - SNG Copenhagen 603 - West 86 - Schönert-Geiss Maroneia 489
Superbe à FDC - CHOICE AU

Legend has it that Maroneia was founded by Maron, a priest of Apollo who was a son of Dionysos, and it is probably no coincidence that the place (with its Dyonysian sanctuary) produced sought-after wine, said to be dilutable in much water. This reverse type, with vine within a square, which evokes that of Mende in Macedonia, had appeared in the 430s BC and became typical of the last issues before the mint stopped in the mid-4th century BC, when Philip II of Macedon expanded his domination of the area. Why a horse came to be adopted as obverse design remains uncertain. The weight of Maroneia’s coins, since c. 390 BC, was based on the Persian standard of a silver stater of 2 sigloi. This specific coin, that bears the name of the magistrate Kallikrateos, is especially noteworthy for its depiction of a dog on the obverse. The Canis familiaris Maelitacus, or ‘Maltese’, is related to the Tibetan Terrier from Asia. Proto-Maltese dogs probably came to Europe via the Middle East, possibly being used to fight rodents. A Greek amphora c. 500 BC found in Vulci depicts one such dog – with the inscription Melitaei, and Aristotle wrote of this breed c. 370 BC not long before its description by Callimachus c. 350 BC. In the first-century AD, Pliny suggested that the name came from the island of Mljet, but Strabo linked it instead to the island of Malta.