Sale: Nomos 6, Lot: 19. Estimate CHF850.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 May 2012.  Sold For CHF2600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Panormos (as Ziz). Circa 405-380 BC. Litra (Silver, 0.76 g 7). Youthful male head to left. Rev. sb’ṣyṣ Bearded man-headed bull walking to left, his head turned slightly towards the viewer. CNG 66, 2004, 121. Jenkins, Punic pl. 24, 12 var. and SNG ANS 548 var. (but both with the inscription above the bull). A lovely toned coin of remarkably fine style and beauty. One of the finest examples of this type known. Extremely fine.

From a German private collection, ex Münzen und Medaillen, FPL 461 (November/December 1983), 9.

This coin is unusually attractive. The head on the obverse, often thought to be a river god though he lacks the characteristic horn over the ear river gods have, is very finely modeled and is reminiscent of the head on the early Apollo/Wheel obols of Massalia. The man-headed bull on the reverse is, if anything, even more finely engraved and is particularly elegant, equal to the finest productions from Neapolis. This is yet another example of the way the people of Sicily insisted that the coins they used in daily commerce should not just be utilitarian, but beautiful as well.