ARGOLIS. Kleonai. Circa 500-490 BC. Twelfth Stater (Silver, 11.5 mm, 0.99 g). Forepart of lion to left, with open jaws and with his foreleg extended. Rev. Incuse square of mill-sail form, divided into raised and sunken triangles. BCD Peloponnesos 1310 ( this coin ). Extremely rare, unpublished save for its auction appearance. Toned. Rough surfaces, otherwise, about extremely fine.

From the "Collection sans Pareille" of Ancient Greek Fractions and from the BCD Collection, LHS 96, 8 May 1996, 1310 .

This coin was first acquired long ago in northern Arkadia, in the area between Pheneos and Phlious. While not found at Kleonai, we still can confidently attribute it there because of the lion, since a lion head appears on later hemiobols issued by that city; but nowhere else in the Peloponnesos. The lion, of course, was the famous monster from Nemea, which terrified the area until Herakles came and strangled it. The unusual weight standard is apparently Milesian, which was also used during the late 6th and early 5th century at Phlious and Pheneos.