I've been looking for a good example of this type for several years, after becoming enthralled at it early on in building my collection of ancients. Nearly three years ago, thumbnail images of what looked like a great example were posted on an auction website and I immediately sent an email to a dealer that I wanted to sell several US coins to go after the stater aggressively. Ultimately, that coin turned out to be fake, and I was unfortunately outbid on subsequent examples, being unable to acquire the type until the latest NAC sale. I tend to agonize over my preparation for auctions, attempting to ascertain some degree of logic when planning bids and often hit the nail on the head with the price at which I expect a coin to sell. However, in this instance, I dramatically over-estimated what I would need to pay, something I don't mind doing! Lampsakos has a storied past, having been a frequent source of contention between battling powers, changing hands between Lydia, Persia, Athens, and Sparta between the sixth and fifth centuries BC. It was the first Greek city-state to see its gold coinage reach broad international acceptance, a testament to its prosperity and influence. Acting as the successor to the Persian daric, the stater of Lampsakos retained the weight standard established by the daric and became very popular, circulating from Sicily to the Black Sea. The Greeks tended to only issue gold coinage to meet an immediate demand, generally caused by a large debt or crisis. Lampsakos, however, derived significant wealth from its position as a strategic harbor and therefore had a substantial need for a regular and consistent output of coinage. The staters of Lampsakos are some of the most appealing ancient gold coins not only for their high standard of artistry but also because of the diversity of their design. Over the sixty years during which the city issued gold coinage, more than forty different obverses were produced. This level of creativity is uncommon as contemporary mints generally kept their gold coinage consistent from year to year, making only minor changes. This particular coin was struck at the end of the Classical period and bears the head of Zeus, the king of the Greek gods, in a fantastic portrait of superb style, with a lotus-tipped scepter on his shoulder. The reverse is sometimes referred to as a generic “winged horse” but the more common interpretation is that it represents Pegasus, the most famous of winged horses. This reverse design remained consistent for the entire duration of Lampsakos’ gold coinage and acted as a symbol for the city. It became so recognizable that the mint did not feel any inscription was necessary to identify their iconic gold coinage, despite their use of inscriptions in other metals. This coin belonged to Prince Alexandre Chattowskoy of Russia, born in 1777. He presided over Smolensk and like much of the nobility of the time, he was a patron of the arts. He personally translated many works from French to Russian including Volatire’s “L’Orphein de la Chine”, publishing it in 1809, and Jean-Francois Ducis’ “Abufar, ou la famille arabe” in 1815. He also wrote several of his own pieces, including a romantic comedy based off of Walter Scott’s novel “The Fortunes of Nigel”. His coin collection was sold in 1908 in a Brüder Egger sale, in which this coin was lot 539. This coin was later used as the plate coin for the type by Agnes Baldwin Brett (1876-1955) in her substantial work “Lampsakos: The Gold Staters, Silver and Bronze Coinages.” (1924) She was the first female curator at the American Numismatic Society and became a renowned scholar in ancient numismatics and archaeology. LAMPSAKOS, Stater c. 360–340, Persic standard, AV 8.47 g. Obv. Laureate and bearded head of Zeus left, lotus-tipped sceptre on right shoulder. Rev. Forepart of Pegasus flying right, within a shallow incuse square. Literature Traité II/2, 2537, pl. CLXXI, 3 BMC Mysia 81, 28, pl. XIX, 6 SNG von Aulock 7394 SNG Lockett 2709 A. Baldwin, ”Lampsakos. The Gold Staters, Silver and Bronze Coinages”, AJN 53/3, 1924, 29w, pl. III, 4 (this coin) Pozzi 2228 M.-M. Bendenoun, Coins of the Ancient World, A portrait of the JDL Collection, Tradart, Genève, 2009, 23 (this coin) Rare. A fantastic portrait of wonderful style and a lovely reddish tone, Extremely Fine. Provenance Monnaies et Médailles AG 68, Basel 1986, 271 Brüder Egger, Wien, January 1908, 539. Ex. Prince Chattowskoy collection.
Very impressive coin and excellent write up. Not sure why but I'm usually not totally thrilled by most gold coins, liking the artistic look of silver much better. However, I really do like this coin. Great artistic quality for sure. Congrats on obtaining the coin! I see the weight of the coin in grams but I do not see the diameter size. Do you know yet?
Sadly, I'm not a time traveling prince - CoinTalk just has a fantastic PageRank Finding information on old Russian princes is surprisingly difficult: I had to pour through a variety of old scanned books and articles, with many different spellings and translations to wade through.
Beautiful coin as usual AJ. On this coin though, I really like the provenance as you've highlighted it in your write up. The history of those individuals who have collected and studied a particular specimen is also a fascinating part of numismatics in my opinion.
hello AJ, thank you on you post, i was wondering, if you get in this price range. any older selling documents? i think i ts called Provenance documents best regards, eric
Thanks! It's about the size of an aureus/denarius ~19-20mm in diameter. I do need to go through my coins and measure them more accurately at some point.
