Description
Ionia, Teos, Silver Stater (11.76g), struck circa 540-520 BC. Obverse: Griffon seated facing right, its left foreleg raised, all above a dotted floor line. Reverse: Quadripartite incuse square of rough form. Seaby-3512. Very Fine to Good Very Fine.
Provenance:
Ex George Mihailuk Collection via Colonial Coins and Medals Auction 7, February 2006
Teos was an ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia and a flourishing seaport with two fine harbours. It found success as a trade hub until the time of Cyrus the Great’s invasion of Lydia and Ionia circa 540 BC, to which the majority of Teos’ population migrated to the Thracian coastal city of Abdera to escape the ‘Persian yoke’. It could be said that this coin was one of the last of Teos during it’s prime as a city state, since it was struck during this period. Unfortunately, history would not be so kind as in 513 and 512 BC, the Persians, under Darius the Great, conquered Abdera.
Sold to a Brisbane gentleman with a keen interest in the numismatics of the Ancient World for $1250.