A coin from Crimea, which the Soviet authorities took to the Hermitage, was sold for a record price
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At the Numismatica Ars Classica auction in Zurich, a coin from Panticapae, a Greek colony located near modern Kerch on the eastern coast of Crimea, was sold for a record price. The Soviet authorities took a rare coin with the image of a satyr to the Hermitage collection, but later sold it. Read UP. Culture in Telegram The coin was sold to an anonymous buyer for more than 4.8 million pounds. The amount set a new record for antique coins sold at auction, according to The Art Newspaper. The obverse of the coin, minted in the 4th century BC, depicts the head of a satyr, and the reverse depicts a griffin with a spear in its mouth. Coin collectors claim that the three-quarter satyr image makes the coin special. It is also believed that there are only three copies of it, and it is impossible to buy the other two, because they are in museum collections. The ancient city of Panticapae was part of the Bosporan kingdom. The image of a satyr on the coin may be a reference to the king of the Spartakid dynasty, Satyr I, who ruled the Greco-Scythian state from 432 BC. to 389 BC The griffin symbolizes the mythical guardians of gold deposits in the mountains of Scythia. The coin exists in only three copies. Photo: Numismatica Ars Classica The Soviet authorities took the coin from Crimea to the State Hermitage Museum. It remained in his collection until the early 1930s, when the museum sold off many of its exhibits to raise money for the Soviet government. At the same time, for example, the Hermitage sold such paintings as “Madonna Alba” by Raphael (1511) and “Annunciation” by Jan van Eyck (1434-36), which later became the basis of the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington. After the end of the auction, the coin from Crimea set a new record as the most expensive antique coin. Meanwhile, the most expensive coin of all time is the $20 gold coin minted in 1933. In 2021, it was sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $18.9 million. Read also: The Russians took the gold of Byzantium from the museum of Chersonesus Tavri
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