#colchian

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Extremely Rare Ancient Greek Gold Stater from Kolchis, 1st Century BC - 2nd Century AD

Obverse: Stylized beardless head to right, wearing what is apparently an Attic helmet with a high crest and ornaments; on the top of the crest at front, four birds. Reverse: Crude figure seated to left, holding a small figure on its right arm and a transverse spear in its left; to left and right, vertical line of oblong pellets; below, trident to left. Extremely rare, an extraordinary and very unusual piece. Well centered and well struck. Good extremely fine. This was sold at auction recently for $ 38,779 USD.

This piece is an extraordinary example of a particularly bizarre coinage, one that in the past has been identified as coming from a variety of different places. Early scholars in western Europe assumed it was possibly Balkan or from the area of the Black Sea: that last suggestion was the closest to being right. We now know that these pieces seem to have come from the area of modern Georgia. Up to now they have fallen into two basic types: imitations of staters of Alexander the Great bearing a very rude Athena head and an eagle-like Nike, or imitations of Lysimachos staters with a degraded head of Alexander the Great and a very schematic seated Athena. This piece clearly bears a helmeted head on the obverse, which is probably meant to be Athena but wearing an attic helmet rather than the expected Corinthian one. The reverse is basically copied from late Lysimachos staters minted in Byzantion in the earlier 1st century BC.

Colchian Gold Boar Bracelets, 5th Century BC

Colchian Woman's Gold Diadem With Temple Rings, 400-350 BC