CYZICUS ELECTRUM HECTE – SUPER INTERESTING MITHRAIC DAIMON TYPE – CHOICE VF NGC GRADED GREEK MYSIA COIN (20108)

$3,650.00

20108. MYSIA. CYZICUS. Ca. 550–500 BC.
Electrum Hecte, 2.73 g, 11 mm
Obv. Daimon, composite creature with human body, lion head, griffin’s ears and wings, running left, head turned right, holding tunny. Rev. Quadripartite incuse square.
Von Fritze 123; Greenwell 57; SNG France 272; Boston MFA 1459.
NGC graded CHOICE VF, Strike 5/5, Surface 2/5, “marks,” a remarkable mythological type usually known from the stater denomination with the same design. At times identified as Phobos, the personification of terror, the figure may also be the Mithraic divinity Areimanios (Ahriman) as argued by Bivar, “Mithra and Mesopotamia,” Mithraic Studies [Manchester, 1975], pp. 275–89.