CITIUM SILVER 1/3 STATER – EXTREMELY RARE ISSUE WITH HERACLES BATTLING THE HYDRA – XF NGC GRADED GREEK CYPRUS COIN (Inv. 20324)

$7,500.00

20324. CYPRUS. CITIUM (?). Uncertain king, ca. 445–361 BC.
Silver 1/3 Stater, 3.43 g, 14 mm.
Obv. Heracles struggling with the Nemean lion, his club raised up to slay the monster, ankh symbol in left field. Rev. Seated lion left, right forepaw raised, bull with raised head standing left in the background, all within dotted square border.
BMC 83, pl. IV, 25; J.P. Six, “Monnaies Grecques, Inédites et Incertaines”, NC 8 (1888), p. 131, no. 26, pl. V, 13; Tziambazis –.
NGC graded XF, Strike 4/5, surface 3/5, “brushed,” an extremely rare emission with only one other specimen in market records, seldom available and impressive for its animal imagery.

Citium was a major Phoenician colony on the island of Cyprus. Its importance was so great among the early Cypriot settlements that its name was regularly used in the Bible to refer to the entire island (Kittim in Hebrew). This extremely rare stater fraction of Citium illustrates the external cultural influences on the city. The ankh symbol is derived from Egyptian iconography, in which it was a symbol of life. The depiction of Heracles fighting the Nemean Lion comes from popular representations in Greek art, but here the hero was probably intended to be understood as the Phoenician god Melkart (“Lord of the City”). This deity was especially popular at Tyre, where he was regularly recognized as an equivalent of Greek Heracles.