Sale: Triton V, Lot: 91. Estimate $4500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 January 2002.  Sold For $3000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BRUTTIUM, Mesma . Circa 340-330 BC. Æ 22mm (10.23 gm). MESMA, head of Persephone right, grain ears in hair; oinochoe left / Pan seated left on rock; dog seated behind left with head reverted. Gorini, "Per uno studio della monetazione de Medma," in Quaderni Ticinesi 14, 1985, 6-7; SNG ANS 594 var.; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG Morcom 442; Laffaille, "Choix de Monnaies Grecques en Bronze," 24 = Virzi 350 (this coin); Laffaille -; Weber 1099. Near EF, olive green patina on the obverse, reverse a brighter green, some peripheral roughness. Exceptional dies. Very Rare. ($4500)

Ex Tom Virzi Collection (Bank Leu Auktion 6, 8 May 1973), lot 37.

This coin is dated by style to the second half of the fourth century. Similar pieces bear the letters AP and an eight-rayed sunburst, a symbol also found on the Tarentine nomos (Vlasto 602) of the time of Alexander the Molosian, and this issue may be associated with that king's activities as champion of the Italiote league.