Owner Comments:
The Auctioneer says: "IONIA. Ephesus. Ca. 133-88 BC. AV stater (21mm, 8.32 gm, 11h). NGC Choice AU 5/5 - 4/5. First series, ca. 133-100 BC. Draped bust of Artemis right, hair drawn into knot at back of head, wearing stephane and drop earrings, bow and quiver over shoulder / Cult statue of the Artemis Ephesia facing, fillet hanging from each hand; Ε-Φ to either side of head, lighted torch (or thymiaterion) in inner right field between statue and fillet. Jenkins, Hellenistic, pl. B, 6 (dated 123-119 BC). Head p. 69, 4 variety. Old, light scratch behind the bust of Artemis noted for accuracy."
The cult-figurine on the reverse of the coin is from within the Temple of Artemis, which was in ancient times a wonder of the world. Herostratus in the 300's B.C. wanted to become famous, and because he was a nobody, he figured a good way to do that would be by burning down the second Temple of Artemis in Ephesus (which is almost in present-day Selçuk, Turkey). He did it. In response the government of Ephesus passed the "damnatio memoriae" law which forbid anyone to mention his name, orally or in writing. (See: mass shooters). Herostratus is the early incarnation of someone who commits a criminal act in order to become famous. Sadly, this usually works.
A source says "the Hellenistic gold coinage of Ephesus is uniformly very rare. Certain other issues such as the present example appear to be part of extraordinary issue of gold struck in conjunction with an extremely rare gold stater type of Magnesia in the mid-second century. The style and fabric of both issues seem consistent with an emergency issue struck to meet an immediate expense." NGC has certified 20 of these in all conditions.
This coin is struck from the same obverse die as two other staters that Jenkins was able to securely date to 122/1 BC and 121/0 BC, so he assumed that this issue, with thymiaterion must belong to the years adjacent to these (see Jenkins, Hellenistic, p. 184).
The reverse of this coin depicts the famous cult statue of Ephesian Artemis, housed in the great temple of Artemis that is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The original image of the goddess was a wooden xoanon that had represented a pre-Hellenic goddess who the Greeks later equated with Artemis. This first image, which was kept decorated with jewelry, was possibly lost in a flood in the 8th or 7th century which destroyed the temple; excavations have discovered the tear-shaped amber drops of elliptical cross-section which must have dressed it. In circa 550 BC, when reconstruction of the temple was begun (partly financed by Kroisos), it was undertaken in grand style and was supposedly the first Greek temple to be built of marble. The wooden xoanon was replaced by a new ebony or grapewood statue sculpted by Enoidos, which presumably survived until the temple was again destroyed, this time by an act of arson on the part of one Herostratos. The second destruction of the temple coincided with the birth of Alexander the Great; Plutarch later noted that Artemis was too preoccupied with Alexander's delivery to save her burning temple.
The form of the goddess is distinctly near-eastern in appearance; characteristics such as her legs being enclosed in a tapering pillar-like term are closely related to Egyptian and Hittite images, and the curious feature of the many protuberances on her chest (usually described as breasts or eggs) are decidedly non-Greek in origin, and indeed have defied explanation or identification for centuries, though an association with fertility seems implicit.
According to the auctioneer:
"IONIA. Ephesus. Ca. 133-88 BC. AV stater (21mm, 8.32 gm, 11h). First series, ca. 133-100 BC. Draped bust of Artemis right, hair drawn into knot at back of head, wearing stephane and drop earrings, bow and quiver over shoulder / Cult statue of the Artemis Ephesia facing, fillet hanging from each hand; Ε-Φ to either side of head, lighted torch (or thymiaterion) in inner right field between statue and fillet. Jenkins, Hellenistic, pl. B, 6 (dated 123-119 BC). Head p. 69, 4 variety. Old, light scratch behind the bust of Artemis noted for accuracy.
The rare Hellenistic gold staters of Ephesus have been the subject of long-running debate over when they were struck. In the 1880s, the eminent Barklay V. Head assigned them to the period of the Mithradatic Wars, circa 88-86 BC, when Ephesus briefly came under the control of the Pontic King Mithradates VI Eupator. However, as more varieties were discovered over the next century, it became clear they were struck over a much longer period of time. G.K. Jenkins, in a 1987 article, placed them in two groups starting in the later second century BC, after the Roman takeover of Asia Province in 133 BC, and linked the reverse symbols present on several varieties to similar symbols found on the common cistophoric tetradrachm coinage of the Roman era. Staters with a simpler two-letter ethnic, including the present example, belong to the earlier period, prior to 100 BC, while coins with a longer form come later in the series."
My own observation is that the portrait of Artemis on this coin resembles that of Artemis on a silver drachm of the Aitolian League from about 100 years earlier, 250-225 BC. https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces153883.html