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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;AncientJoe, post: 7774319, member: 44357&quot;]I&#039;m becoming increasingly patient and particular when it comes to my collection, resulting in a slow pace in acquiring new pieces. However, this was the longest wait I&#039;ve had for a specific coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>I first saw this exact coin in 2011 when an early preview of the Prospero collection was being prepared. When the sale came around, it was the highest bid I&#039;d ever placed at that point, although I wasn&#039;t the underbidder. The Sheikh bought almost the entire sale and I assumed it would never reach the market again.</p><p><br /></p><p>A few years later, I made a new friend who also collected Greek coins and we were chatting about coins. I brought up a picture of that coin and he said &quot;that is MY coin&quot;. I was very jealous but glad that it was &quot;in the family&quot; and not in fact permanently off the market.</p><p><br /></p><p>Fast forward to March 2020. I was lotviewing at NAC&#039;s offices in London and much to my surprise, I saw the coin as part of the Sheikh&#039;s collection! Worried that it was stolen or somehow lost, I texted my friend who clarified that it was a language barrier issue: he WANTED the coin and bid on it but didn&#039;t own it.</p><p><br /></p><p>He thankfully isn&#039;t buying as much now so I was set to make an aggressive bid.</p><p><br /></p><p>On the day, I received word that at least two big dealers had bids on it, including the dealer who underbid it in the Prospero sale.</p><p><br /></p><p>I was mentally prepared to stretch my bid even more and go &quot;all in&quot; on it. It opened, a few other bids occurred, and then I bid and won... at well under half my max, and less than half of what it sold in Prospero! The underbidder was the same dealer as in the 2012 sale but he must have just not been as aggressive this time.</p><p><br /></p><p>This highlights an interesting situation where the end price realized is highly dependent upon one or two people and that across a number of years, it&#039;s very difficult to extrapolate prices or if the underbidder will still be as interested when it comes time to sell.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1333433[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>And, stealing NAC&#039;s description:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;By the first half of the third century BC, Gortyna had become the second most powerful city on Crete next to neighbouring Knossos and had conquered the city of Phaistos for the use of its harbour. The types of the present coin, struck during the period of Gortynian ascendancy, recount the local version of the myth of Europa, which provided a degree of legitimacy for Gortynian claims of supremacy in Crete, even with respect to Knossos. The reverse type features a bull, the animal form taken by Zeus to abduct Europa from Phoenician Tyre. Carrying her on his back, the bull crossed the sea to Crete where he revealed himself to Europa as the king of the gods and his desire for her. The reverse type symbolically represents this moment of revelation with Europa seated before an eagle-the bird of Zeus. The two are represented in the boughs of a plane tree as it was claimed that Europa and Zeus consummated their relationship beneath just such a tree. Indeed, to this day this famous tree is still exhibited to tourists visiting the site of ancient Gortyna. The union of Zeus and Europa resulted in the birth of three children, Minos, Sarpedon, and Phestos, the mythical kings of Knossos, Malia, and Phaistos, respectively. Thus, in mythical terms, through the conception of these kings in her environs, Gortyna could lord it over Knossos, Malia, and Phaistos as their mother city.</p><p><br /></p><p>Unfortunately, while the myth of Europa gave Gortyna certain bragging rights in Crete, only a few decades after this coin was struck, the city was plunged into the disastrous Lyttian War (220-216 BC). This conflict, which developed over Knossian attempts to dominate the city of Lyttos, led to a bloody civil war in Gortyna between the older citizens, who favoured alliance with Knossos against Lyttos and the younger citizens who preferred to throw in with the Lyttians against their aggressor. The final result of the conflict is uncertain, but it left a lasting hostility between Gortyna and Knossos. The use of types related to Europa at Gortyna during and after the Lyttian War may perhaps reflect a continued desire by the city to claim a mythological superiority over its rival.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Crete, Gortyna.</i></p><p><i>Half stater circa 280-260, AR 6.80 g. Europa, naked to waist and wearing a peplos over her lower limbs, seated three-quarters r. in plane tree, her head facing, holding out her veil with her l. hand and resting her r. on the tree; on her l., an eagle perched. l. on branch, its head turned back towards her. Rev. ΓOPTY – N[...] Bull standing l., looking backwards. BMC 40, pl. XI, cf. 4. Svoronos 106. Le Rider, pl. XLII, 12. Extremely rare and in exceptional condition for the issue, undoubtedly among the finest specimens known. Struck on exceptionally fresh metal and with a lovely light iridescent tone.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>Post the coins for which you&#039;ve waited the longest![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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