Sale: Nomos 8, Lot: 42. Estimate CHF25000.  Closing Date: Monday, 21 October 2013.  Sold For CHF50000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Leontini. Circa 440-430 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 26mm, 17.51 g 5). Laureate head of Apollo to left, his hair bound up at the back. Rev. ΛΕΟΝΤΙΝΟΝ (retrograde) Head of a lion with open jaws to left; around, four barley grains. Boehringer, Münzgeschichte 51. Jameson 1830 (this coin). Kraay / Hirmer 24 (this coin). Rizzo pl. XXIII, 19. SNG ANS 235. Very rare. Toned and of particularly fine early classical style. About extremely fine.

From the B. in B. Collection, ex Bank Leu 28, 5 May 1981, 30, and from the collections of R. Jameson, J. G. Sandeman, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 13 June 1911, 35, and the Bank of England, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 13 February 1878.

This lovely coin, with its almost severely mannered head of Apollo, was struck from dies of great elegance. Given its quality there should be no wonder that it was picked by both Hirmer and Jameson!