From the Vlasto and Peterson Collections

Sale: CNG 81, Lot: 21. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009.  Sold For $325. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CALABRIA, Tarentum. Circa 450 BC. AR Nomos (6.46 g, 12h). Phalanthos riding dolphin left, arms outstretched; cockle shell below / Taras as Oikistes seated left, holding distaff and kantharos. Fischer-Bossert group 10, 137f corr. (V73/R94) = Vlasto, Taras type 14R, b corr. = Vlasto 188 corr. (weight, not fourrée; this coin); HN Italy 844; SNG Ashmolean 222 (same dies); Dewing 134 (same dies). VF, toned, a few light scratches under tone, marks on edge. Very rare die combination.

From the Colin E. Pitchfork Collection. Ex M.P. Vlasto Collection, 188; F.W.V. Peterson Collection (Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 19 December 1920), lot 7.

This coin is listed by Vlasto (in Taras, pp. 82-3) as plated, because of its light weight, but this is incorrectly recorded as 5.90 g by both Vlasto and Fischer-Bossert. Its actual weight, at 6.46 g, is low for the series, but not dispositive of its authenticity (see Numismatic Circular vol. CVIII.4, August 2000, p. 167, where a sale of a selection of Vlasto’s fractions notes many errors of weight, some by significant amounts, recorded by Vlasto). There is clearly no evidence of plating, and the edge marks are more consistent with filing to fit a bezel rather than concealing features indicative of plating. All of the Oikistes coins of Tarentum are very rare. Fischer-Bossert lists 6 examples from this die pairing, and 39 coins overall for his group 10, from 11 die pairings (7 obverse and 8 reverse).