Finally brought home a Sikyon stater

Since I can't have @AncientJoe's, this one will have to do


SIKYONIA, Sikyon, 335-330 BCE. AR stater, 23 mm, 12.3 gm. Chimera standing left; wreath above, ΣE below. Dove flying left; A to left; all within wreath. BCD Peloponnesos 220; Traité III 775, pl. CCXX, 11. CNG 342, ex "collection of a Southern Pathologist, purchased from C.H. Wolfe, 3 May 1989"

I've been hunting for the right one for a year now. Sure, I'd like it to have better details... but the the centering and toning are very nice and the price was right. I can live with this .

The serpent head on the chimera's tail isn't visible on this coin-- it's off the flan and this die doesn't have a very distinct serpent head anyway.

AJ's writeup nicely summarizes the coin and politics. Here are some additional tidbits.

Location: northern Peloponnesus, northwest of Corinth


Map from vismor.com

I tried to make a somewhat interactive map but couldn't load it here. On my website I have a page with this map and all of my coins from the area. The pictures are clickable.

What is a chimera?

Mythical creature composed of several animals. This coin's chimera is a fire-breathing lion/goat/serpent. It is first mentioned in Homer's Iliad and origin myths are varied, as is often the case with such things. One hypothesis about the myth's origin is that it stemmed from the natural geologic feature of "burning rocks": metamorphic rock venting flaming methane. Located in Lycia (modern-day southwest Turkey), this is also the region where the chimera myth began.


Sighting a chimera was a bad omen. Fortunately I haven't seen any in my neighborhood this week, coins notwithstanding.

Side note: chimeras do exist! Animals (and humans!) can in certain circumstances can be conceived with or develop two different sets of DNA. Some male tortoiseshell cats exhibit this trait. Sure, it's not as cool as having a snake-tail or goat-back, but it's still pretty cool...unless you're Lydia Fairchild or Karen Keegan, whose children were almost taken away when initial DNA testing appeared to show they couldn't be the mothers of their children. When DNA was sampled from different tissue, the chimerism was found and crisis averted.

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Post your chimeras, coins of Sikyon, or anything else you think works

 

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Well, it's about time, my coin-Princess!! (you bought this baby a few weeks ago!!)

=> but holy schmokes it was worth the wait (great write-up and amazing coin) ... you are certainly buying some top-drawer examples lately (I'm totally jealous of this sweet addition) ...

Ummm man, wow => that's a pretty tough-act to follow, but I'm not embarrassed to toss-in my little sweetie .... "go on ... go play with TIF's coin, it won't bite"




... I think my craftsman seemed to enjoy detailing the dove's wings, eh?

 

Lovely! When you tire of it or decide to upgrade, please send this one my way .

 

Did'ja ask AJ if you could buy it?

Loverly toning on that one TIF.

 

A gorgeous example TIF. I love the small details of the wreath. With the exception of some minor weakness on the head of the lion, the beast is complete. A superb piece whatever the case.

 

Stunning!

 

One of the best I've seen other than AJs. Here is my meager entry:

 

TIF is correct about the serpent tail. If you want an good snakehead you need an earlier coin without the wreath over the Chimera. The problem is that keeping the nose and the tail (for that matter the top of the goat) on flan all at the same time is a real problem. I selected my coin for the tail but really lost detail in the other two heads. My coin could have been better if centered a little lower losing the lion paws.

 

That's definitely a great tail though, Doug. Such a happy-looking serpent. Not a scary monster at all. More like a Muppet

 

what a beauty TIF (and the rest of you guys)! i'd love to have one of these...yup...on the list.

the striations on the reverse are interesting as well, what caused that pattern? neat.

i also see the souther pathologists coin are back! that dude had some sweet coins!

here's a real life chimera...





not quite as wouldn't look at cool on an obverse i suppose.

 

Sweet looking coin. not much to complain about on that one. Here is my almost the same but not quite in issue and condition.

 

Awesome addition Tif

 

Fantastic coin TIF!

 

Wow TIF thats a beautiful coin! Im just getting into ancients and now I want to add this one to my list! Really cool coin!

 

Wow! Absolutely stunning TIF. I love the toning and the detail. A great addition to your collection.

 

No, this is not photoshopped. And she might not even be a chimera!

 

BeauTIFul coin, the color is off the chart, details awesome, i'm glad it showed up for you, seems like coins are slow coming home this time of the year!!

 

The Chimera is a very cool mythical animal and a very cool idea overall ...

The Lion and the Snake seem like pretty solid choices ... but the goat is a bit of an odd choice, no? (hey, not that I'm not agreeing that a goat could gore you with its horns, but I usually don't lump the goat in with the rest of the scary and/or ferocious animals)



Yah, in my mind, some animals just don't seem to be scary enough to make the chimera grade ... here are a couple more examples of poor chimera choices ...




... but hmmm, I wonder what could take the place of the goat? ...

Hey, maybe a "Dragon" would have been a cool mid-body-beast? (ahhh, but I don't think dragons became beasts until the medieval times??)



... hmmm, I guess a dragon is basically like a snake/serpent anyway, so I guess it wouldn't be the best replacement ...

=> hmmm, but what could replace the goat?

 

My guess is polishing file marks on the reverse die before engraving that were not polished as well as usual.

 

I realize that this is an older thread but I wanted to say first that you acquired a beautiful coin @TIF and I am quite jealous. I also wanted to ask a question about these Sikyon coins since it seems you all have a lot of knowledge on the type.

I'm looking to add one of these beauties to my collection and my research so far hasn't turned up how to differentiate between the late 5th century Peloponnesian War types and the later issues. I know the wreath above the lion is a later addition but I've seen some 4th century examples called out without this feature.

Any advice on how to pick out the Peloponnesian War type or a recommendation on a good book/reference on the series? Many thanks!