Xanthos, Lycia (Kuprlli Dynast)

[b]Xanthos, Lycia (Kuprlli Dynast; 450-440 BC.) AR Stater[/b] [u]Obv[/u]: Conjoined double bull protome. [u]Rev[/u]: Triskeles; KOP (Kuprilli) retrograde legend; dotted circular border. [u]Attribution[/u]: BMC pl.4,13; Morkholm Zahle 47; Traite II/2, 282 [u]Provenance[/u]: ex. Gorny & Mosch 152 (lot#1431), 10.10.06 [u]Weight[/u]: 8.42 gm. [u]Maximal Diameter[/u]: mm. [u]Axis[/u]: [u]Note[/u]: More rare die variant (i.e., missing triskeles on obverse die and reverse legend is retrograde) seen in BMC Lycia pg.15, no.71 (pl.4, 13). Light Lycian weight standard. Five examples known. A single stater of this type was found in a 15-coin hoard at Naucratis, Egypt by Sir Flinders Petrie in 1880. The hoard was determined to date from ca. 430 BC., but wear on the stater suggests its minting a decade before. The two bull protomes back to back, which have bent, parallel forelegs, has long since been recognized as Achaemenian. The motif is found on a gold ring from the Oxus treasure (1964) and is stamped onto a silver phiale found in the late 1960s in a tumulus burial at Ikiztepe in Western Asia Minor. Nevertheless, the motif is particularly known from Achaemenian sculpture in the capitals from Pasargadae, Persepolis, Susa, and Sidon. (Morkholm & Zahle, 1972, The coinage of Kuprlli, Acta Archaeologica. pg. 98) GK239