Greek Silver & Bronze Coins

Lot 2680    SESSION 11 (9.30AM THURSDAY 25TH MARCH)    Greek Silver & Bronze Coins

Estimate $4,000
Bid at live.noble.com.au

CARIAN ISLANDS, Rhodes, (mid-late 220's B.C.), silver tetradrachm, (13.32 g), Tharsytas magistrate, obv. radiate head of Helios three-quarter face to right with hair loose, rev. rose, with bud on right, **QARSUTAS* above, to left eagle standing right on fulmen, all within dotted border, (cf.S.5047, Ashton 215, SNG Cop.756, SNG von Aulock 2802, SNG Finland 550, HGC 6, 1432). Attractive grey tone, slightly off centred and a worn die on the obverse, good very fine/extremely fine and rare.

Ex UBS Auction Sale 57, 15-17 September 2003 (lot 278), with envelope.

A most interesting coin as this tetradrachm coin type was treasured by several religious foundations in the Middle Ages as one of the actual 'Thirty Pieces' of silver which were accepted by Judas Iscariot for the betrayal of Christ (Matt XXVI, 15). In the middle ages the appearance of this coin from the Greek world showed, to the uninitiated, several 'proofs' of identification. The obverse of these coins shows a facing head of the sun god Helios surrounded by rays of light and to some medieval minds, this clearly was the head of Christ himself wearing the crown of thorns! The reverse type, a rose, was thought of as the rose of Sharon - symbolizing the Resurrection. The rose is actually the emblem of Helios and a punning allusion the the name of the mint, Rhodes (which is Greek for rose). These 'Judas Pennies' as they are sometimes called would hardly have been current in quantity in Palestine so long after their issue but an odd one or two might have appeared on the money changers tables at the time of Christ and during the following centuries. But it is now clear that they were not one of the 'Thirty Pieces'.