Greek Silver & Bronze

Lot 3884    Session 13 (2.30pm Thursday)    Greek Silver & Bronze

Estimate $600
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $410

BOIOTIA, Thebes, (395-338 B.C.), silver stater, (W)ast[ias] Magistrate, (11.52 grams), issued 390-382 B.C., obv. Boiotian shield, rev. amphora, with letters FA **ST* either side, corn grain above, (cf.S.2398, Hepworth Series A4, No.36, BMC 120, McClean 5596, SNG Cop. 319-320, BCD Triton IX Sale lot 436 [same dies]). Slightly off centred, very fine and a scarce type.

Ex Patrick Cooper Collection with his tickets and previously acquired from Spink & Son, London in 1954 for 55/-. The staters of the Boiotian Confederacy of the 4th Century are well known to numismatists. These staters, struck on the Aiginetic standard, bear on the obverse the usual Boeotian shield and on the reverse an amphora, with the addition of magistrate names and, on occasion, vines hanging from the handles or extra symbols above the amphora. Although the coins do not bear the mark of an issuing city, Thebes, as hegemon of the Boeoetian Confederacy, was most likely respsonsible for their issuance. In his study of the series, 'The 4th Century BC Magistrate Coinage of the Boiotian Confederacy,' in Numismatica Khronika (1998), Robert Hepworth has identified 45 (two are uncertain) different magistrates and 97 separate varieties. The series begins in the early years of the fourth century and ends at the latest in 335 BC, when the city was razed by Alexander the Great. Through an intensive die study, Hepworth has been able to identify the internal order of this series although an absolute chronology still waits to be determined. The actual identities of most of the magistrates remain obscure. However, the magistrate abbreviated as EPPA or EPAM has been identified as the historical Epaminondas (see 'Epaminondas' Coinage,' in Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of Numismatics, [London 1986, pg. 35-40]), who, at the battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, successfully led the Boiotians against the invading Spartan army, thus ending nearly 300 years of Spartan military supremacy. Epaminondas would meet his death in 362 at the battle of Mantinea. Hepworth in describing the series noted 1700 examples recorded from all the sources found over a period of 25 years of researching. The series is divided into four major groups with sub-division within. It is established by die-links and hoard evidence of the approximate order of issue. The series appears to have an annual change of magistrates. The BCD example from the same dies in good very fine (lot 494, realised $950 + 15%US). The magistrate (W)astias was the pro-Spartan rival of Androkleidas and was instrumental in the latter's exile and assasination.