Sale: Nomos 1, Lot: 10. Estimate CHF25000.  Closing Date: Tuesday, 5 May 2009.  Sold For CHF750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BRUTTIUM, Lokroi Epizephyrioi. Time of Pyrrhos of Epeiros. Circa 275 BC. Stater (Silver, 7.44 g 9). Laureate head of Zeus to left; below neck, monogram of ΝΕ Rev. ΛΟΚΡΩΝ / ΡΩΜΑ ΠΙΣΤΙΣ Roma seated right on low throne, holding short sword in her left hand and resting her right on shield at her side; before to right, Lokroi, as Pistis the personification of Faithfulness, standing left, crowing Roma with a wreath held in her right hand. BMFA 195. Kraay/Hirmer 293. HN III 2347. Jameson 449 (this coin). SNG ANS 531. Very rare, attractively toned, historically important and of fine style. Nearly extremely fine.

From the collections of W. Niggeler, 1, Bank Leu/Münzen und Medaillen, 3 December 1965, 82, R. Jameson and Sir Arthur Evans, Burlington Exhibition, 1903, pl. 101, 82.

This remarkable coin celebrates, in an unusually explicit way, the alliance of Lokroi with Rome after the end of the war against Pyrrhos. Lokroi had initially fought against Rome but later changed sides and was well treated by the Romans in return. Such explicit references to contemporary events on Greek coinage are extremely rare.