From the Gillet and British Museum Collections

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 20. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $21500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LUCANIA, Laos. Circa 510-500 BC. AR Nomos (7.82 g, 12h). Man-headed bull standing right, head reverted; ΛAFE above / Incuse of obverse; NOM above. Sternberg Series I, 1.8 (V1/R1) = BMC 1 = GPCG p. 10, 6 (this coin); Gorini 4; HN Italy 2270; SNG ANS 122; SNG Lloyd 287; Basel 123; Traité I 2101 = de Luynes 443; Jameson 254; Weber 727 (all from the same dies). Good VF, toned, minor roughness and a few light marks. Good metal for issue. Very rare.

Ex Leu 76 (27 October 1999), lot 6; Charles Gillet Collection; British Museum Collection.

Laos was a colony of Sybaris, founded probably in the 7th century BC, along the banks of the river Laos on the western coast of Lucania. By the later 6th century, most of its inhabitants were refugees of Sybaris, after that city's destruction by Kroton in 510 BC. Very little is known of the city beyond its foundation, except that it was the site of the defeat of the Greek cities who had united against the native Lucanians (Strabo VI, 253). The coinage of Laos is relatively rare, and fairly sporadic in issue. The silver is confined to a few issues in the 5th century, and consisted of a wide variety of denominations, from nomoi to diobols. The typology is quite limited, with the staters having a man-headed bull on both sides, while the fractions feature the same on the obverse, but an acorn or pellet-in-circles on the reverse. A bronze coinage also was produced in the later 4th century, and is quite distinct from the earlier silver. The system is uncertain, but it appears to have at least two denominations, typically called 'heavy' and 'light'. The types are more diverse than the silver, with the heads of various deities (e.g. Demeter, Dionysos, Herakles, Athena) or the man-headed bull on the obverse, and one or two birds on the reverse.