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Elis, Civic Issue, ca. 30’s BC, Æ 2 Assaria
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Head of Hera wearing stephane right.
F-Eagle with wings closed standing right on thunderbolt, MY monogram to right.
BCD Peloponnesos 695 (this coin); HGC 5, 544 (this coin) (S); BCD Olympia 307-313; SNG Copenhagen (Phliasia) 429; Wroth p. 335, 6.
(24.5 mm, 13.32 g, 1h).
Edward J. Waddell, June 2011; ex- BCD Collection, LHS 96, 8-9 May 2006, 695; ex- B. Kritt collection - acquired from Kritt in 1987 for $1,800 per BCD note in LHS 96 catalogue.
One of the best examples of the type known - Alan Walker in the LHS 96 catalogue noted that this coin is ‘Very well struck and of unusually good style for this normally fairly dreadful issue.’
Warren connects this issue with the presence of Marc Antony in Elis and sees the eagle standing on a thunderbolt as being a reference to the standard Ptolemaic reverse type (the eagle at Olympia never seems to grasp the thunderbolt of Zeus) and thus an allusion to Cleopatra.
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