Thrace. Abdera. AR Didrachm (7.29g), ca. 520 BC. ANS -; May 19. Very rare. Lovely hoard patina. Well centered and struck. An interesting coin! Good very fine. Jean Elsen 1997 (49) lot 208; Bank Leu 1992 (54) lot 59; Munzen und Medaillen 1966 (32) lot 113.

"Do not approach them!" (Aeschylus, Prometheus bound, 802). The griffin was a legendary, dangerous creature, almost invariably represented as a monster with the body of a lion, with powerful legs and claws and the beaked head and wings of an eagle. Interestingly enough, the griffin we see on this coin was probably based on a living creature, albeit one which had died out millions of years earlier! A beaked dinosaur (Protoceratops) was indeed the size of a lion, and had a powerful beaked head, very reminiscent - especially in skeletal forms! - to that of an eagle... Ancient Greeks could have easily seen their fossils, either on the ground surface or on the sides of cliffs, just as we can today, and thought they had died relatively recently.