Myrina (BC 425-375) Trihemiobol?

ca 420-380 BC. AR (1.09g). Female head left, hair in sakkos / ΜΥΡΙ/ΝΑΩΝ (retrograde), stag grazing left within incuse square. Only known specimen(?). Nice classical style. Slight porosity. VF.

The attribution of this so far unknown issue to the Aeolian Myrina and not to the city of Myrina on Lemnos is due to the fact that from the latter there are only known bronzes from the end of the Hellenistic period. The Aeolian Myrina on the other hand struck silver coins of Alexander types at the end of the 4th c. BC. and had a quite large coinage from the 2nd c. BC. onwards. The style of the head on the obv. makes a date to the end of the classical period plausible, one could compare it with issues of Mytilene (cf. Bodenstedt 90 or 109) or Phocaea (cf. Bodenstedt 94 or 162). The iconography of the rev. is not surprising: the stag is the symbol of Artemis, of whom worship is attested. The goddess is represented on hemidrachms of about 300 BC. (cf. ZfN 3 [1876], pl. VIII, 17).