Sale: Nomos 7, Lot: 99. Estimate CHF3500.  Closing Date: Tuesday, 14 May 2013.  Sold For CHF2800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SIKYONIA, Sikyon. Circa 450-425 BC. Drachm (Silver, 6.31 g 6). san Chimaera prowling to left. Rev. inverted san Dove flying to right; below right, Δ (= drachme); all within incuse square. BCD Peloponnesos 162. SNG Copenhagen 20 = Traité 738 and pl. CCXIX, 14. Of very great rarity, perhaps the finest known example. Nearly extremely fine.

From a European collection, formed before 2005.

For a short period, probably just before the start of the Peloponnesian War in 431, Sikyon produced a denominationally marked series of drachms (Δ), triobols (Τ), obols (Ο) and hemiobols (Η). The smaller fractions continued on into the later 420s and are not particularly uncommon today, but the drachms and triobols are extremely rare. Most known specimens are in very poor condition, indicating that most of the coins continued in circulation for a very long time. The present piece is, however, in astonishingly good condition - better, in fact, than anything in the BCD collection. It was acquired at some point prior to 2005 and comes from a large general collection of Greek coins that was entirely acquired privately.