Ainos (Ancient Greece)
Thrace, Ainos. Silver Tetradrachm (15.76g), ca. 400-370 BC. Facing head of Hermes, wearing riveted petasus. Reverse: AINION, Billy goat standing right, about to nibble at ivy tendril twined around amphora; all within incuse square. May, Abdera 225, 370 (these dies); Traité pl. CCCXLV, 17. Very Rare. Outstanding classical style. Struck in very high relief. Beautiful old uniform dark cabinet toning certainly adds to this coin's great beauty and charm. Extremely Fine. Estimated Value $25,000
The obverse of this tetradrachm features a wonderful facing head of Hermes clearly inspired by the celebrated and widely imitated head of Arethusa pioneered by the likes of Eukleidas and Kimon at Syracuse in ca. 413 BC. Hermes here is especially notable for the extremely high level of preservation with almost no wear visible on the nose. The reverse depicts a goat, the usual animal prescribed for sacrifice to Hermes. Here the goat seems poised to take a bite out of the ivy entwined around the amphora that serves as a control mark for this issue.

Ainos was famous in antiquity for its sanctuary of Hermes Perpheraios ("the Wanderer") and its miraculous wooden cult statue of the god. Epeios, the famous creator of the Trojan Horse, was said to have carved a wooden cult statue of Hermes and erected it on the shore before Troy, but this was washed out to sea. The image drifted until it came to the mouth of the Hebros River on the coast of Thrace where it was caught in the nets of local Greek fishermen. They failed to recognize it as a cult statue (suggesting that either they could not appreciate art or Epeios was a very inept woodcarver) and proceeded to use it as firewood when they returned to shore. The fishermen became frightened when they discovered that it could not be made to burn under any circumstances (perhaps forgetting that they had just dragged it out of the Aegean?) and threw it back into the sea, only to have it immediately returned by the waves. When a group of Thracians subsequently came upon the statue, they immediately recognized it as a sacred image and erected a shrine that later grew into the city of Ainos.
Ex Abou Taam Family Collection; Ex Denyse Berend, Paris Collection; Prof. Dr. APC Weiss, USA (private purchase at TEFAF Maastricht in 2007).