I'd been hoping to get one of these for awhile now - in particular, the variety where the nymph has human-like hands and the satyr goat-like feet. It took some time mainly because I wasn't prepared to pay the $400 - $500 that the more decent examples seem to go for. I recently managed to pick up this one for closer to $250, and while perhaps not in the best condition, the details I was looking for are all present and clear. At 7.6g, this does seem to be light for the type, where the majority appear to be in the 8.5g - 9g range. In auction records I've scanned through, I've seen a small handful below 8g and even as low as 7.4g, so at least there seems to be precedence for lighter examples. Please post your Thasos satyr-nymph staters! ISLANDS OFF THRACE, THASOS AR Stater (7.6g, 22mm) Circa 463 - 411 BC SG 1746, BMC 2. O: Nymph with hand raised in protest, not having a good time with a naked, ithyphallic satyr. R: Quadripartite incuse, mill sail pattern.
It's still somewhere on my buy list, although one did pass through my hands recently when shopping on behalf of a friend: Like you, I searched for one with hoofed feet and certain other anatomic features. Maybe if he tires of the coin he'll sell it to me.
Although the features you looked for are not present on mine, it is what I could afford at the time. In fact, the features of the entire coin are near worn off, but here is mine:
very nice Z (and tif..that was is awesome, i'm sure your coin buddy was very pleased, and bing). you guessed in....on my list.
Thanks for the comments and pics, folks. TIF - great looking coin you picked up for your friend, but I'm just curious why someone wouldn't want to buy their own coins. Surely that's at least half the fun?
People do that all the time. Have others shop for a particular coin and even pay some for the service. I had picked out a coin for a couple of beginners so that they wouldn't get ripped by a fake or over-priced coin. Even a coin that looks way better in the photo, etc.
I believe this is a factor of a fact in the hobby. We have beginners who do not want beginners' coins but come into the hobby with a lot of money and no idea what to do with it to become an instant factor in the hobby without really understanding what it was they were buying. 200+ years ago, when this was the "Hobby of Kings", the major players employed numismatists who helped with the collection. They did the dirty work of contacting the dealers and organized the collection. In some cases, these collections have been kept together in places like Denmark (from which we get SNG Copenhagen). In many cases a full collection would be sold intact to a higher level collector when the staff numismatist would have a few years work ahead of him. I have maintained that beginners should cut their teeth on beginners' coins but most of you have bought coins far above anything in my collection. I wish I could get a high paying job playing with the magnificent X6 or TIF collections but, unfortunately, their highnesses seem to have enough free time to do their own grunt work. It must not have been so when kings actually had to run their country between weekly appointments with the staff to show what had recently been done to improve the glorious holdings. I know a dealer who I would most certainly trust with a spare million dollars (if I were to have an extra one) given no more guidance that to buy some things he is certain I would like and that would make my collection something that all the dealers would beg to sell when I was finished. For very little extra, he would even write down why it was that I should be happy with each coin. He would not cheat me knowing full well that I would be likely to do it again next year and the next.
=> well, I have never been shy to ask for a bit of advice from you ultra cool coin-rock-stars, right? ... plus, I usually run most of my cool picks past my hero, Batman ... => yah, I really should leave him as one of the benefactors in my will, eh? ... anyway ... Here is my giggity-coin example ...
He was only interested because of my interest. I guess he had some money to burn and thought it would be fun to have a few nice ancient coins. I certainly had fun shopping for them!
Ah, this I can understand, and he could've done much worse in his choice of a shopper. If however I were someone absolutely new and wanting to start on the hobby, and I had access to an experienced friend, I'd rather have them advise on my choices rather than pick them outright for me.
I was once told that the claw versions were minted earlier than the five fingered versions. Anyone care to elaborate?
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/Articles/satyrs_and_nymphs.htm A nice article but it doesn't address your specific question.
I do not have a stater but show two drachms of what I understood to be the three types. First and oldest is the claw; second and missing from my collection is the full hand version; latest shows the lady more amenable to being carried off and having her arm around the satyr.
