GREEK COINAGES, Uncertain Thraco-Macedonian Mints, Tritartemorion, 5th cent. BC, unicorn standing right, head reverted, rev. four-part incuse square, 0.55g. Unpublished in the standard literature; very fine and of considerable interest £200-250

Unicorns are not found in Greek mythology, but rather in accounts of natural history by Greek writers which were convinced of their reality in the mystic East. The earliest description is from Ctesias of Knidos in the 5th century BC, who described them as ‘wild asses, fleet of foot, having a horn a cubit and a half in length’