SINOPE SILVER DIDRACHM – COUNTERMARK SPECIMEN EX THEODOR PROWE COLLECTION SOLD BY EGGER IN 1914 – GOOD VF GREEK PAPHLAGONIA COIN (Inv. 21321)

Sold

21321. PAPHLAGONIA. SINOPE. Ca. 200–120 BC.
Silver Didrachm, 8.36 g, 20 mm.
Obv. Head of Tyche left [countermark with facing bust of Helios]; Rev. ΣΙΝΩ, Poseidon enthroned left, holding dolphin and trident, BKA control monogram in right field [countermark: head of Zeus left, in relief].
HGC 7, 409 (for host); SNG BM Black Sea 1515 (for host), 1516–1517 (for countermark); SNG Stancomb 789 (for countermark).
Ex CNG XXI, 6/26/1992, lot 83 (with their ticket) = Theodor Prowe collection, Brüder Egger XLVI, 5/11/1914, lot 579.
Good VF, with superb glossy gray cabinet patina with golden highlights around the devices, scarce with countermarks and such a particularly desirable provenance.

This didrachm was countermarked, probably in the late second century BC, to revalidate it for continued use in Sinope, possibly with a change in face value. We know that the countermark was applied in Sinope because tiny letters between Helios’ rays name the Sinopeans in Greek. The city’s didrachms appear to have been countermarked in large numbers, perhaps on more than one occasion. These countermarks always feature the head of Helios on one side, but the other side may depict the head of Zeus (as here) or the head of Athena. They seem to have been applied at the same time using hinged dies.