Uncertain (unknown?) drachm

[Rupert]

This is a coin which I have now had for a few years, and that I still have no clue about where it comes from. I bought it (from Gorny, Munich) as "Asia Minor, uncertain drachm", and that's still all I know.

Drachm(?), silver, 4.17 g
Obv. Animal (goat? Horse? Stag?) standing right on exergual line; in front, annulet or O; no other discernible letters
Rev. Late-archaic head right with a hair-band and a hair knot at the back in incuse square(Apollon? Artemis?), no inscription

Does anybody have any idea about the attribution of this coin? I'm very curious.

Thanks in advance,

Rupert

[Kopperkid]

THe portrait very similar to those from Caria, Knidos. I ould start my search in that area.

[Rupert]

You mean, like in the first picture below (from Coinarchives).

This is correct, the Aphrodite heads of the early Knidos issues often also seem to have this indefinite gender. It is well possible that the coin comes from this region. The specimen below was the closest in style I could find. The style allows a dating, I think, to 470 - 440 BC; Knidos itself, however, had the Aeginetan standard, with a drachm weighing 6 g, until about 400 BC.
Could it be an earlier, uninscribed issue of Antandros? I found this one (second pic below) on Coinarchives, 2.85 g, dated to about 400 BC. Maybe this is an issue of the same type (Artemis / goat) 50 years older?

Rupert

[slokind]

The binding-up of the hair on both, and particularly on the Antandros head, is feminine.  In vase-painting it is prevalent in the 460s BCE, especially well illustrated on the calyx krater (punch bowl) in red-figure that is the name-piece of the Villa Giulia Painter.  An ancient person of the 5th c. would have seen the heads unambiguously as feminine.  Pat L.

[Rupert]

This is quite clear for the drachm on bottom with the Antandros inscription; some tets from Syracuse show very similar hairdos. I had not been sure about the head on my coin on top.
And if this style was en vogue in the 460's, a date in between 460 and 440 would fit rather well for my coin, since coins were a rather conservative medium. Thanks a lot Patricia!

Rupert

[Kopperkid]

That's the image I was thinking of. I didn't want to give away the thrill of the find. Sounds hookey, but true. I learn by discovery.

You mean, like in the first picture below (from Coinarchives).

This is correct, the Aphrodite heads of the early Knidos issues often also seem to have this indefinite gender. It is well possible that the coin comes from this region. The specimen below was the closest in style I could find. The style allows a dating, I think, to 470 - 440 BC; Knidos itself, however, had the Aeginetan standard, with a drachm weighing 6 g, until about 400 BC.
Could it be an earlier, uninscribed issue of Antandros? I found this one (second pic below) on Coinarchives, 2.85 g, dated to about 400 BC. Maybe this is an issue of the same type (Artemis / goat) 50 years older?

Rupert