Sale: Nomos 8, Lot: 19. Estimate CHF10000.  Closing Date: Monday, 21 October 2013.  Sold For CHF28000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LUCANIA, Metapontum. Circa 400-340 BC. Didrachm or Nomos (Silver, 22mm, 7.87 g 11). Youthful head of Dionysos to left, wearing a diadem adorned with a maeander pattern and upright ivy-leaves; below, ΣΠ. Rev. ΜΕΤΑ Barley ear with leaf to right. HN III 1531. Noe 458. Rare. A coin of splendid style, very well centered and struck on a broad flan. Nicely toned. Extremely fine.

From the B. in B. Collection, ex Bank Leu 33, 3 May 1983, 202.

The head of the young Dionysos here is of great elegance and freshness, lacking any sign of the drunkenness that so often accompanies the god: without the diadem that so clearly identifies him he might well be Apollo. This piece is one of the finest examples of this type known.