MENDE SILVER TETRADRACHM – DIONYSUS ON ASS TYPE POSSIBLY FROM THE KALIANDRA HOARD OF 1913 – XF FINE STYLE NGC GRADED GREEK MACEDON COIN (Inv. 17476)

$14,000.00

17476. MACEDON. MENDE. Ca. 460–423 BC.
Silver Tetradrachm, 17.07 g, 25 mm.
Obv. Dionysus reclining on ass, holding cantharus and looking right. Rev. MEN–ΔA–I–ON around grape vine laden with fruits.
Noe, Mende, 81; SNG ANS 344 (same obverse, but coupled with the reverse type of SNG ANS 340–341).
Ex Salton Collection, likely acquired in the 1950s–1960s when Mr. Salton owned a numismatic firm in New York.
NGC graded XF, Strike 5/5, Surface 2/5, FINE STYLE, a particularly elegant die whose composition with Dionysus looking right is rarely seen in the series.
NGC’s 2/5 surface rating is due to some parts of the coin being more corroded than the rest of the surface, a characteristic seen on specimens of the Kaliandra hoard of 1913 (IGCH 358) – for which see http://coinhoards.org/id/igch0358#examples. It is possible that this tetradrachm may be one of the 5 specimens from this die pair listed by Noe in his monograph on the hoard.