King sa.... Hemistater circa 315-312, AV 13 mm, 4.12 g. Head of Athena r., wearing crested Attic helmet: in r. field, Σ – A. Rev. pa sa in Cypriot characters Bull advancing r., below, A – P. BMC p. 33 and 4 (Marium, Stasioikos II). Tziambazis 60 (king Stasioikos II for Marium). Markou, L'or 2 (this coin). Of the highest rarity, the only specimen in private hands of only five known. Reverse slightly off-centre, otherwise good very fine Ex Sotheby's 20 November 1980, 284 and NAC 114, 2019, 346 sales. From the collection of a Discerning Collector. Gold coinage reached Cyprus in the fourth century BC, roughly a century and a half after the island's kingdoms began striking silver sigloi in the late sixth century. Only some of the kingdoms issued it. Evagoras of Salamis was among the first Cypriot rulers to strike gold, and his son Nicocles (373-361 BC) continued the practice with gold fractions. Melikiathon of Kition (392-361 BC) is also known for a gold hemistater. The new coins differed in character from the older silver. The animal types typical of the fifth century gave way to Greek divinities such as Athena, Apollo, Zeus and Aphrodite, often assimilated to local gods, and Greek letters gradually replaced the Cypriot syllabary. Gold seems to have lasted only a short time. It was tied to the last generation of independent kings, and the wars of Alexander's successors ended their rule in the 310s BC. This extremely rare hemistater has been attribuited, in the earlier catalogues (BMC p. 33; BMC no. 4; Tziambazis 60) to Marion under Stasioikos II, the last king, on the reading of the Greek letters on the reverse as MAP. Recently, Evangeline Markou, the author of the L'or catalogue your entry cites, studied this Athena/bull-or-eagle gold series, and she reconsidered it, changing the attribution and the ruler. Please find here the video of the coin