CNG 84, Lot: 506. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARKADIA, Arkadian League. Circa 460-450 BC. AR Hemidrachm (12mm, 2.95 g, 12h). Tegea mint. Zeus Lykaios standing right, head left, holding eagle and phiale / Head of Kallisto facing, hair bun to right, within incuse square. Williams, Confederate, period III, 176 (O121/R110); BCD Peloponnesos -; BCD Peloponnesos II 2570 corr. (same dies); BMC 1 (same dies); de Luynes 2311 (same dies). Near VF, lightly toned, slight granularity. Extremely rare, one of six known, four of which are in museums.

This period of the League coinage at Tegea is remarkable in its unusual facing portraits of Kallisto, unparalleled at the other cities. Some of the Tegean coins also depict Zeus from different perspectives, such as from the back (see BCD Peloponnesos 1713) and standing (as on the present piece). This particular coin is extraordinary in that Kallisto is looking directly forward, rather than slightly to the left or right, and is known from a single reverse die (R110). Only four examples are recorded in Williams as having been struck from this die, all in museums (London, Paris, Berlin, and Modena). The present piece and that from BCD Peloponnesos II are the only two known to reside in private hands, and this example is the finest of these.