Cyprus Uncertain (BC 450) Stater

ca 450 BC. AR Stater (10.52g). Cow right suckling calf, eagle flying right, "ankh" in right field topped with owl's head / Bull standing right, plow above, owl's head below. Good VF. Extremely rare; one of only three known coins. Ex Geissener Muenzhandlung 44 (4/1989), lot 463.

The examples of this coin are known: this piece, the Paris specimen, and one in a private collection (from Leu 50, lot 216). There is another coin in Paris from the Seyrig Collection which is stuck from the same dies, but in an earlier state, before the dies were recut to add the owl heads. Originally attributed to a Phoenician mint and later an uncertain Cilician mint, M. Amandry has since convincingly argued that the style does not fit the Sidonian origin and directs one to another coin (see Sternberg XVII, 180) possibly from the same obverse die, but with heavier recutting, that has a more Cypriote-appearing reverse.