Sale: Nomos 6, Lot: 34. Estimate CHF25000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 May 2012.  Sold For CHF21000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACE, Dikaia. Circa 490-480 BC. Distater (Silver, 19.09 g). Head of bearded Herakles to right, wearing lion’s skin headdress. Rev. Quadripartite incuse square. Asyut 145 (same dies). BMFA Suppl. 71 (same dies). May, Dikaia, 14-16 var. Schönert-Geiss, Bisanthe 2 var. (V-/R2). Very rare. A wonderful piece with a head of Herakles of splendid late Archaic style. Some very minor porosity, otherwise, good very fine.

From the collections of K. Wiegandt, Peus 401, 3 November 2010, 293 and of W. and L. Fielder, Triton VIII, 11 January 2005, 249.

The noble head of Herakles on this coin is remarkably similar to those that appear on Attic painted pottery (especially on pots done by the painters who spanned the change from Black to Red Figure). It is also fascinating that the obverse die was so much larger than the flan on which it was struck: later issues of this type utilized much smaller dies.