Sale: Nomos 7, Lot: 5. Estimate CHF70000.  Closing Date: Tuesday, 14 May 2013.  Sold For CHF70000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LUCANIA, Sirinos and Pyxoes. Circa 540-510 BC. Stater (Silver, 7.72 g 12). ΣΙΡΙΝ - ΟΣ (retrograde and in archaic characters) Bull walking to left on striated ground line, his head turned back to right; border of dots. Rev. ΠVΧ (retrograde and in archaic characters) In incuse, bull walking to right on rayed ground line, his head turned back to left; border of rays. AMB 165 (same obverse die). HN III, 1723. Mangieri, RIN 1981, B 7 (this coin). Traité II, I 1723 (this coin cited). Very rare and well struck. Some minor marks and scratches, otherwise. extremely fine.

From the Mieza collection, ex NGSA VI, 30 November 2010, 14, Numismatica Ars Classica 54, 24 March 2010, 20, NGSA IV, 1 December 2006, 16 and from the collections of Robert Perret (Bourgey - 1958) 1 and the Cabinet des Médailles in Paris, exchanged as a duplicate with H. Cahn in 1939.

This coin has a long history. It was in the collection of the Bibliothèque National in Paris but was traded as a duplicate to the young Herbert Cahn in 1939: he then sold it to Robert Perret, whose collection was published in 1958 and then sold privately. For most of its history this coin was covered by a heavy layer of oxides that muddied its appearance and obscured many details. The coin was professionally cleaned after its sale by NAC and was restored to its former glory. It is now one of the finest coins known from the alliance between Sirinos and Pyxoes, two cities that were allied to and dominated by Sybaris.