HERACLEIA PONTICA SILVER STATER – CA 1800s PROVENANCED PIECE EX BOYNE, EX WARD, EX MORGAN, EX METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, EX STANCOMB – GOOD FINE GREEK BITHYNIA PROVENANCED AND PUBLISHED COIN (Inv. 21443)
$5,500.00
21443. BITHYNIA. HERACLEIA PONTICA. Ca. 335–337 BC.
Silver Stater, 9.67 g, 24 mm.
Obv. Head of Dionysus left, thrysus over shoulder. Rev. ΤΙΜΟΘΕΟΥ – ΔΙΟΝΥΣΙΟΥ, Heracles standing left, erecting trophy, club at its base, ram’s head left between legs.
HGC 7, 496; SNG BM Black Sea 1607-8; W. Stancomb, “A Group of Staters of Timotheos and/or Dionysios, Tyrants of Heraclea Pontika,” in NC 2000, pp. 263–8, 19 (same obverse die).
Ex William Stancomb Collection and originally from the collection of William Boyne formed in the latter half of the 19th century: ex Roma E-Sale 70, William Stancomb Collection, 5/7/2020, lot 172 = ex Morton & Eden 14, 5/25/2005, lot 1040 = ex Sotheby Zurich, Ward and Metropolitan Museum of Art collections, 4/4/1973, lot 499 = ex Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, William Boyne collection, 1/21/1896, lot 390.
Published: John Ward, Greek Coins and their Parent Cities (London, 1902), no. 590 (listed and illustrated), there clearly stated it is from the Boyne collection, citing the Sotheby’s sale.
Good FINE, superlative pedigree going back to the 19th century.
This rare coin is an outstanding testament to the history of collecting. It was first recorded as part of the William Boyne collection sold in 1896 by Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge in London. The sale of the Boyne collection was undoubtedly a remarkable event at the time since it was composed of some 30,000 pieces from antiquity until modern times. Mr. Boyne was an eminent numismatist, and his collection was formed in the period from the 1850s to his death in 1893. John Ward likely was the purchaser of the piece at the Boyne sale, and he published it in his book Greek Coins and their Parent Cities in 1902, specifically noting that it was from Boyne. The Ward collection was given in 1905 by J. Pierpont Morgan to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, which in turn sold it in 1973. The most recent owner was William Stancomb, a great collector and student of Black Sea coinage.