GREEK COINS
Cyclades, Naxos
Stater circa 520-515-490, AR 11.74 g. Cantharus with ivy leaf finial on lid; grape bunches hanging from handles. Rev. Quadripartite incuse square. Svoronos JAIN p. 40, 2301 and pl. H’, 28 (this coin, wrong weight). Nicolet-Pierre 15b (this coin). Sheedy 15b (this coin).
Very rare. Wonderful old cabinet tone, test cut on obverse,
otherwise about extremely fine
From the Eleni Mavrokordatou collection.
In his corpus on the coins of the Cyclades, Sheedy cites this coin as present in the Numismatics Museum of Athens, assuming that the Mavrokordatou collection was donated or purchased by the State. In reality, the coins were published by Svoronos, however the collection of Eleni Mavrokordatou, who was the wife of a famous Greek diplomat, was never donated to the museum and instead dispersed among her heirs before the World War II. We are grateful to thank Nicholas Mathioudakis of London Coin Galleries for this information.