Sale: Nomos 8, Lot: 20. Estimate CHF3500.  Closing Date: Monday, 21 October 2013.  Sold For CHF5200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LUCANIA, Metapontum. Circa 400-340 BC. Didrachm or Nomos (Silver, 20mm, 7.56 g 3). Head of Demeter to right, wearing a pendant earring and a simple necklace, with her hair bound in a sakkos. Rev. ΜΕΤΑ Barley ear with leaf to left; below leaf, ΛΥ. HN III 1536b. Noe 448. Nicely toned and with a lovely head of Demeter. Extremely fine.

From the B. in B. Collection, ex Bank Leu 33, 3 May 1983, 201.

Whether the head on this coin is really that of Demeter is uncertain: there are no grain ears or leaves in her hair as one would expect, and the use of a simple sakkos as a hair ornament is what one would expect to see on a nymph.