| Classical Numismatic Group > Triton XXVII | Auction date: 9 January 2024 |
| Lot number: 18 Price realized: 900 USD (Approx. 824 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: LUCANIA, Metapontion. Circa 330-290 BC. AR Nomos (20mm, 7.83 g, 3hh). Wreathed head of Demeter right, wearing triple-pendant earring and necklace; E[Y] below chin / Barley ear of seven grains with leaf to right; META upward to left, ΛY to lower left, star above leaf. Johnston Class C, 8.12 (same dies); HN Italy 1592; SNG Fitzwilliam 514 (same dies); Pozzi 192 (same obv. die). Underlying luster, a couple of tiny flan flaws. EF. Struck from dies of pleasing style. Metapontion, originally named Sybaris, was an Achaian colony of very early foundation, though the precise details of its origin are shrouded in uncertainty. Following the destruction of its first foundation by the Samnites, it was refounded, as Metapontion, early in the 7th century BC by settlers under the leadership of Leukippos, who was thereafter revered as the city founder. The great prosperity of the city - attested by the extent of its archaic silver coinage commencing in the mid 6th century BC - was based on agriculture. Situated on the Gulf of Tarentum, Metapontion occupied a plain of extraordinary fertility watered by the rivers Bradanos and Kasuentos. Its standard coin type is an ear of barley, a tribute to the source of Metapontine wealth, and Demeter, the goddess of grain who is the city's most revered deity. Estimate: 1000 USD |  |
