Mysia, Lampsakos AV Stater. Circa 350 BC. Laureate head of Zeus left,

Mysia, Lampsakos AV Stater. Circa 350 BC. Laureate head of Zeus left, sceptre over right shoulder, tip showing behind his neck / Forepart of Pegasos facing to right. Baldwin 29; SNG von Aulock 7394 (same dies); BMC 28, pl. XIX, 6; SNG France 1138 (same obverse die); Babelon, Traité II, pl. CLXXI, 3; Boston 1594; Kraay - Hirmer pl. 202, 729. 8.42g, 17mm, 2h.

Near Extremely Fine.

Privately purchased from Spink & Son Ltd., London, 7 August 1984;
Ex Gustav Philipsen Collection, Jacob Hirsch Auction XXV, 29 November 1909, lot 1790.

Lampsakos was founded in around 654/3 BC by Phokaian colonists, and in the sixth century became a dependency of Lydia; when the Lampsakenes had captured Miltiades, the Athenian tyrant of the Chersonesos, they were forced by Kroisos to set him free. After the fall of the Lydian kingdom in 547, the city then fell under the dominion of Persia. Lampsakos joined the Ionian cities in revolt in 499, but was conquered by Daurises (a son-in-law of Darios I) in 498 or 497, and thereafter remained under Persian control until it was given by Artaxerxes to the exiled Athenian general Themistokles as part of the governorship of the Magnesian district. Themistokles' district also included the cities of Myos, and Magnesia itself, who along with Lampsakos paid him revenue of 50 talents per year, for 'meat', 'bread' and 'wine' respectively. At an uncertain date after the death of Themistokles in 459 BC, Lampsakos joined the Delian League, and is recorded in the tribute lists from 453/2, paying a phoros of fifteen talents.

Lampsakos was the first Greek city to make regular issues of gold coinage which enjoyed an international circulation. Struck on the standard of the Persian daric, Lampsakos' use of the Pegasos protome as its invariable reverse type led to widespread recognition of its gold abroad, such that like the cities of Kyzikos and Phokaia who respectively employed tunny fish and seal badges, it was unnecessary to identify the mint by an inscription upon the coin. Indeed, the esteem in which Lampsakene staters were held was due in significant part to the regularity of their issue. Whereas most civic gold coinages of the Greeks were struck only in times of emergency, Lampsakos appears to have issued 41 series of gold staters over a period of 50 or 60 years, evidently for the purpose of facilitating commerce. Deriving its wealth from the traffic passing between the Aegean and the Black Sea, on account of possessing an excellent harbour in a strategic position guarding the eastern entrance to the Hellespont, Lampsakos appears to have enjoyed significant commercial ties with the northern Black Sea lands, which were likely the primary source of its gold.