Williams’ Hypothesis Confirmed // Unique and Unpublished

Sale: CNG 79, Lot: 30. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 17 September 2008.  Sold For $1650. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LUCANIA, Velia. Circa 510-465 BC. AR Drachm (3.72 g). Forepart of lion right, B behind shoulder, devouring leg of stag / Rough incuse square punch. Cf. Williams 38-9 (with letters A and E); HN Italy 1259 var. (letter B not listed). VF, toned. Unpublished with letter B.

Williams identifies two coins of this type with a letter on the lion, as here. The first, with an A (Williams 38 = SNG Ashmolean 1079), is certain. Another, which is in a private collection (Williams 39 = Garrucci, pl. CXVIII, 24), has an E, but Williams was not certain whether the letter was actually in the die. A cast of that coin in the BM is inconclusive (HN apparently thinks not, as the letter E is not noted). Nonetheless, Williams thought that, if the E was in the die, the most likely purpose for such letters would be that they are part of some alphabetical sequence marks, a practice that was certainly used in later series. The present coin, with B, not only comports with this hypothesis, but also suggests that the E on the Garrucci coin was, in fact, in the die.