MACEDON. Mende. Circa 460-423 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 26 mm, 17.22 g, 3 h), c. 440s. Dionysos, bearded and wearing a himation, reclining to left on the back of a donkey walking to right, holding a kantharos in his right hand, and resting his left, which holds an ivy wreath, on the donkey's back; on the donkey's head, ivy wreath (here, effaced from the die); on the ground line to right, crow perched to right within an ivy plant; . Rev. ΜΕΝ-ΔΑ-Ι-ΟΝ Grape vine with leaves, tendrils and five hanging bunches of grapes. Noe, Mende 73a ( of the two cited examples in Noe's addenda, one is almost certainly this coin ). A pleasant coin with a sober depiction of an only marginally drunken Dionysos. Very fine.

From a European collection, acquired from the Rattos in 1939.

The coinage of Mende is well-known for its representations of Dionysos reclining on the back of an ass. Here he seems to be sober, at the start of the procession: he is holding out his cup (to be filled by someone "offstage", and resting his left hand on the donkey's back.