Ionia. Ephesos. Circa 123-119 BC. Stater (Gold, 22 mm, 8.41 g, 1 h). Draped bust of Artemis to right, wearing stephane, necklace of pearls and with her bow and quiver over her shoulder. Rev. Ε Φ Statue of the Artemis of Ephesos facing, with her hands outstretched to left and right; in each hand, a long fillet hanging downwards to her feet; to right, between her body and the vertical fillet, thymiaterion. Jenkins, Hellenistic, pl. B, 6 = BM 1896,0601.67 = Montagu I 567 (same dies). Münzen und Medaillen 41, 1970, 191 (same dies). Very rare and struck on a broad flan. Lightly struck from worn dies and with some flan faults, otherwise, good very fine.
From an English collection.
The Hellenistic gold coinage of Ephesos is uniformly very rare; the sole publication on them is by G. K. Jenkins and appears in Anadolu 21 (1978-1980 - the Festschrift for E. Akurgal - published in 1987 and notoriously obscure). It had been previously thought that all the staters were struck during the Mithradatic wars but this is clearly not the case.