Extremely Rare Mercenary Issue

CNG 93, Lot: 61. Estimate $3000. Sold for $4000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Mytistratos. 354/3-344 BC. Æ Hemilitron (28mm, 34.26 g, 3h). Bearded head of Hephaistos right, wearing pileos / VM and six pellets within laurel wreath. Castrizio Series I, 1 (D2/R2); CNS 1; Puglisi –; Campana 2; HGC 2, 953; Basel 380 (this coin). Good VF, green patina. Overstruck on an uncertain type. Extremely rare mercenary issue.

Ex Property of Princeton Economics acquired by Martin Armstrong (Classical Numismatic Group Electronic Auction 271, 11 January 2012), lot 6 (sold for hammer $4750, but not paid); Athos D. Moretti Collection (Numismatica Ars Classica 13, 8 October 1998), lot 380.

Mytistratos, probably located near modern Marianopoli, was a city in the interior of Sicily. It was settled by mercenaries, possibly from Lucania, who had served under Timoleon. All of its coins are bronze and are overstruck on other coin types, usually Syracusan bronzes.