My trigger finger got itchy, so I took the plunge on this Aspendos stater

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Beautiful example. Love the toning too.

My example I got late last year. It's a rarer type due to the "head on a column, not sure if your is since I don't focus on these.


PAMPHYLIA, Aspendos (420 - 400 B.C.)
AR Stater
O: Two wrestlers grappling.
R: Slinger in throwing stance right; triskeles to left; head-on-a-column.
10.72g
21mm
SNG von Aulock #4510 (Same Dies)

 

Oh, man! That has lovely toning!!! What a fantastic addition to your collection, @lordmarcovan!

 

Great coin! I'm glad you picked it up!

 

A very nice coin @lordmarcovan - great toning, pleasing condition and style, and an unusually wide flan (26mm!). @Curtismo had a nice thread on these coins.

"These staters which seemingly display only a pair of wrestling figures at first sight, in factdescribe 16 positions. The wrestlers sometimes hold each others’ arms, sometimes one holds the other’s arm whereas the other holds his opponent’s neck and in other instances one is trying to get a hold of the other’s waist.
-Tekin (2000)

Tekin's 1991 unpublished thesis is also available online (in Turkish) from Istanbul University.

another small detail: the triskeles has different orientations (yours and @Mat's cool head-on-a-column are feet forward clockwise, mine feet forward counter-clockwise). This coin a little heavier than the OP but much smaller flan.

Pamphylia, Aspendos, circa 380-325 BC, AR Stater (21-22mm, 10.63g, 12h)
Obv: Two wrestlers grappling
Rev: [E]ΣTFEΔ[IIVΣ], slinger in throwing stance right, triskeles to right, all within pelleted square border.
Ref: SNG BNF 45

Derived from "Tekin's 1991 Thesis" these are the 16 positions

 

..very desirable coin melord

 

WoWiE!!! Great toning, strike, artistry and it is a more rare version with the club.
My humble version:



Ps, @Mat the head on a column is more often referred to as a herm. Which I find interesting due to the fact that it's missing its most infamous part

 

@Ryro I used an old copy/paste here on CT. On my forvm gallery & my tag I made I have it as "Slinger in throwing stance right; triskeles to left; herm sans phallus (Hermes) to right."

Thanks though.

 

A beautiful type of coin and a must have in a collection.
Here is mine, imperfect condition but with a very interesting (and unidentified :| ) countermark





Pamphylia, Aspendos, ca. 415/10-400 BC, AR Stater
Obv: Two wrestlers grappling within a dotted border / Rev: Slinger discharging sling right, triskeles in right field, ethnic EΣTEE to left, all within incuse square. Countermarked.
Tekin Series B; SNG Aul. 4525; SNG BN 45ff

21 mm, 10,90 g

 

It's a very beautiful coin, @lordmarcovan. Congratulations! It seems to belong to the so-called "5th Series" of Aspendos staters, as classified in the well-known article by Oğuz Tekin (see @Sulla80's comment above and the discussion below). Note in particular the slinger's raised right heel, and the Hercules club:



Here's my 4th Series example, purchased from Harlan J. Berk last year. I think the toning and iridescence on our two coins are actually rather similar:

Aspendos, Pamphylia, Asia Minor, AR Stater ca. 380/75-330/25 BCE (Tekin, 4th Series [see fn.]). Obv. Two standing wrestlers, naked, grappling with legs spread apart and heads touching; wrestler on left grasps his opponent’s left wrist with his right hand, and left elbow with his left hand; wrestler on right grasps his opponent’s left arm with his right hand; letters “KI” [for name of minting magistrate] in field between wrestlers, below knee level / Rev. Slinger wearing short chiton, standing with trunk in facing position, head and legs in profile facing right, legs held straight with feet apart, left arm extended forward holding sling with left thumb, right arm drawing sling back with elbow bent; triskeles in right field with legs running left; ΕΣΤϜΕΔΙΙΥΣ [adjectival form of city name Estwediius in Pamphylian dialect of Ancient Greek] upwards behind slinger; all contained within square dotted border. SNG Copenhagen 226 [Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Copenhagen, The Royal Collection of Coins and Medals, Danish National Museum, Part 31, Lycia, Pamphylia (Copenhagen 1955)]; SNG Von Aulock II 4557 [Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Deutschland, Sammlung Hans Von Aulock, Vol. 2: Caria, Lydia, Phrygia, Lycia, Pamphylia (Berlin 1962)]; BMC 19 Lycia 45-46 [both with initials “KI” on obv.] [Hill, G.F. A Catalogue of Greek Coins in the British Museum, Lycia, Pamphylia, and Pisidia (London, 1897) at p. 99]; Sear GCV Vol. II 5397 (obv. var. -- diff. magistrate’s initials) [Sear, David, Greek Coins and their Values, Vol. II, Asia & Africa (Seaby 1979) at p. 491], 26 mm., 10.96 g. Purchased from Harlan J. Berk, Ltd., 217th Buy or Bid Sale, 17 Sep. 2021, Lot 132; ex. Harlan J. Berk, Ltd., 7 March 2001.*



See also this video, which I think shows the coin's appearance and toning better than the photo: https://www.cointalk.com/media/aspendos-video-from-hjb.18273/

Aspendos video from hjb by DonnaML posted Sep 23, 2021 at 10:22 PM

*Aspendos, near the south coast of Anatolia, ”was an ancient city in Pamphylia, Asia Minor, located about 40 km east of the modern city of Antalya, Turkey. It was situated on the Eurymedon River about 16 km inland from the Mediterranean Sea.” See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspendos. It was captured by the Persians in 411 BCE (not for the first time), and remained under Persian domination until captured by Alexander the Great in 333 BCE. Id.

In the introduction to BMC 19 Lydia, supra at p. lxxii, the reverse legend in the Pamphylian dialect and the reverse iconography of the slinger on this type of Aspendian “wrestler stater” are explained as follows:



See also the Wikipedia article on Pamphylian Greek, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamphylian_Greek.

According to an important article on the Aspendian wrestler/slinger staters, this type falls into the so-called “4th Series” out of five, issued circa 380/75-330/25 BCE; it probably belongs to the later part of that period. See Tekin, Oğuz, Aspendian 'Wrestlers' : an iconographic approach, in: Mécanismes et innovations monétaires dans l’Anatolie achéménide. Numismatique et Histoire. Actes de la Table Ronde d’Istanbul, 22-23 mai 1997 (Istanbul : Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes-Georges Dumézil, 2000), pp. 159-169 at 165-167 (Varia Anatolica, 12) (available at https://www.persee.fr/doc/anatv_1013-9559_2000_act_12_1_956):

“4th SERIES (c. 380/75 - c. 330/25 B.C.)

On the obverse of the staters which we have classified under this series there are letters found between the wrestlers at knee level (pl. XXVIII, 11). These letters are shown in Table 1 below [Table omitted; the two-letter combinations used include “KI”). . . . It is understood that in the first examples of the [4th] series there was only a single letter on the obverse or reverse.. . .

These letters figuring on the obverse of the staters indicated the initials of either the name of a single magistrate or of two different magistrates. The changed order of certain letters on some staters, that is the A figuring before the Z in one example (AZ) whereas in another the Z figures before A (IA), if not a coincidence, must have been done with considerations of equity as regards the priority in magistrates' names. There exist six such examples [listed in Table 3; KI is not included among them.] . . .

The noteworthy main feature on the obverse of the staters of this series is the position of the wrestlers. One of the wrestlers holds his opponent's arm with both hands, whereas the other holds his opponent's wrist. The wrestler's match therefore is now represented in one single position [by contrast to the 16 different positions found in some of the earlier series]. As regards the slinger on the reverse, there is not much change at first. But the quadratum incusum tends to disappear in the first examples and gradually becomes totally inexistant. Therefore, in the great majority of this series there is a square dotted border instead of the quadratum incusum on the reverse, the incuse [found on the earlier coinage] has disappeared.”

Although Tekin proceeds to discuss the countermarks that are common in the 4th Series, he notes that “The last examples of the fourth series do not have countermarks.” My coin does not have any countermarks.

 

That’s a beauty, congrats! Love that toning!

Here’s my example:


Pamphylia, Aspendos. AR Stater (22 mm, 10.65g). Circa 380-325 BC. Two nude wrestlers, standing and grappling with each other; between them, AK./ Rev. Slinger standing right; to right, triskeles running left; all within dotted square border. Tekin Series 4.

 

That's an atypically fine-styled and well toned example of the type; congrats LM!

 

Lovely stuff LM