ACANTHUS SILVER TETRADRACHM – EX WEBER EX WIGAN AND EX BOMPOIS AND PEDIGREE TO CA. 1850s – CHOICE VF NGC GRADED GREEK MACEDON COIN (Inv. 20175)

$12,500.00

20175. MACEDON. ACANTHUS. Ca. 470–430 BC.
Silver Tetradrachm, 17.17 g, 27 mm.
Obv. Lion springing right, attacking bull kneeling left, control letters Θ – Δ (miniaturized) above, stylized acanthus flower in exergue. Rev. Quadripartite incuse square.
Weber Collection 1862 (this coin); SNG ANS 10; HGC 383; Desneux, Akanthos, 48–68 (var).
Ex Peus 433, 11/1/2022, lot 1139 = Ex Hermann Weber Collection = seemingly ex Edward Wigan Collection, Sotheby, Wilkinson, Hodge, 5/6/1895, lot 72 (unillustrated, but likely this coin although weight is slightly off at 253 grains/16.39 g) = ex Ferdinand Bompois Collection, H.M. Hoffmann, 1/6/1882, lot 698 (citing ex Wigan and with weight of 17.20 g).
NGC graded CHOICE VF, Strike 5/5, Surface 2/5, “scratches,” the illustrious pedigree noted in full on the label.

The pedigree of this piece may be traced to the middle of the nineteenth century, when it was sold as part of the Ferdinand Bompois collection. The extensive introduction in the Hoffmann catalogue described Bompois as a scientist and collector, a man who very much hoped to write a book on the coinage of Macedonia, which he never completed. Bompois has numerous numismatic contributions to his credit and amassed a remarkable collection, beginning in the 1860s. This Acanthus tetradrachm is lot 698, noting the Wigan collection as an earlier provenance. Presumably this is the collection of Mr. Edward Wigan, who died in 1871 and whose collection was purchased by Rollin & Feuardent. Portions of the collection were purchased by the British Museum, but other coins must have been sold privately to collectors, this piece among them. It is uncertain whether this is the same piece as one offered in the Sotheby sale of 1895 which contained material from the Wigan collection since its weight is slightly different. In Weber’s catalogue both the Wigan and Bompois collections are dutifully cited, so it seems that this coin was likely in the numismatic market by the middle of the 19th century.