Sale: Nomos 7, Lot: 12. Estimate CHF3500.  Closing Date: Tuesday, 14 May 2013.  Sold For CHF6500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Leontini. Circa 430-425 BC. tetradrachm (Silver, 17.39 g 12). Laureate head of Apollo to left. Rev. ΛΕΟΝΤΙΝΟΝ Head of a lion with open jaws to left; around, three barley grains and, behind the head, a laurel leaf. Basel 353. Boehringer, Münzgeschichte 55. Rizzo pl. XXIV, 4. SNG ANS 257. A very attractive example, beautifully struck and nicely toned. With the usual die fault behind the eye on the obverse and some minor striking flatness on the reverse , otherwise, good extremely fine.

From a Swiss collection.

This coin was struck from a particularly elegant pair of dies that were engraved by an artist termed, after Rizzo, the “maestro della foglia” because of the leaf that appears as part of the design. He worked at Leontinoi and at Katane, and was exceptionally gifted.