TYPE Ancient Greece, Lesbos, ca. 550-500 BC, billon-silver twelfth stater, 0.89g DESCRIPTION . Obv: Head of African r. Rev: Incuse quadripartite square with uncertain design REFERENCE: VA 7715; Cop 295 var. (head l.); Bod 328 and Tafel 63, 4 GRADING: F+, porosity, spots of corrosion, toning, rare ORDER INFO: G3295, $175 The earliest, archaic coinage of the island, not attributed to any city, though possibly from Mytilene. A rare and popular ethnic representation on a Greek coin. The choice and exact meaning of this design remains a mystery, as do many others in the fascinating and varied output of anepigraphic coins in electrum and silver from the classical Lesbos mints.