Greek, Roman, Egyptian & Other Antiquities

“It had”, said the metal detectorist who found it, “been a wonderful Christmas present.”

One of the great masterpieces of ancient Greek numismatic art, this silver tetradrachm was struck in c.460BC in commemoration of the refounding of the city of Naxos. Its citizens had been exiled to Leontinoi by the tyrant Hieron of Syracuse.

Mithradates IV was ruler of the Hellenistic kingdom of Pontus in northern Anatolia from 169-150BC. He ushered in a period of relative friendship with the Roman republic that would continue until his grandson Mithradates VI (the Great) became its most formidable and determined opponent. Mithradates IV’s coinage draws attention to his Persian and Greek origins.

Spink posted a house record for a classical coin when it sold this Julius Caesar and Octavian gold aureus on April 3 for £220,000 plus 20% buyer’s premium against an estimate of £60,000-100,000.

This terracotta figure is typical of the highly stylised pottery models honouring a fertility or mother goddess, made in Persia in the first millennium BC.

In 1961 when Christie’s auctioned off items from the Wilton House Collection, the catalogue included a full-page image of a monumental Roman marble.

This ancient Egyptian sculptural fragment, part of the Thomaston Place Auction Galleries’ Autumn Majestic Sale in Maine on November 10-12, comes in a silver mount inscribed 'Small toenail from colossal Statue of Ramses II. Temple of Luxor, Feb. 13th, 1899'.

This carved marble portrait head of a youth shown here is Roman and comes from a tightly dated period of the 2nd century.

The name of a new Iron Age ruler or king has been discovered on a coin dug up in a field in the Test Valley, Hampshire.

A collection of Greek coins formed over 20 years ago by a European connoisseur will be sold by Morton & Eden in London on September 26-27.

Richard Beale, director of the London auction house Roma Numismatics, has pleaded guilty to a series of charges in connection with unlawful sales of ancient coins.

A fragmentary shabti with a cartouche for the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten proved a highlight of Bonhams’ latest Antiquities sale.

A Brutus Eid Mar-type silver denarius, struck shortly after the murder of Julius Caesar, has become the most expensive numismatic object ever sold at auction in Scandinavia.

A Panticapaeum gold stater, struck in present day Crimea c.350-300BC, has regained the rank of the world’s most expensive classical coin.

On May 25 Hindman holds its latest sale of Antiquities and Ancient Art in Chicago.

Investigation by saleroom specialist pays off as Castle Howard connection helps a chandelier to impress