Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 20. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ETRURIA, Populonia. Circa 425 BC. AR 10 Asses or Litrai (8.19 gm). Gorgoneion; X below / Blank. Cf. Vecchi II 2-8 (unpublished die); SNG ANS 76; HN Italy 117. Toned, nice VF, struck with worn obverse die. Rare first gorgoneion issue. ($1500) 

Ex Martina de Behague Collection (Sotheby's, Monaco, 12 May 1987), lot 143 (part of).

Recent find evidence for this issue in the Golasecca phase III A 2 stratum of the Prestino excavation suggests a date in the second half of the fifth century down to about 400, (Studi Etruschi 50, 1982, pp. 506-9 in Soprintendenza alle Antichita della Lombardia; De Marinis "Como", and "Prestino, Via Isonzo, Como tra celti ed etruschi", Società Archaeologica Comense, 1986, pp. 113-120). The late fifth century is also confirmed by the subsequent find of a rare 5 Asses piece (Vecchi II, 9-10) in the excavation of the early fourth century Etruscan sanctuary of Gravisca, (P. Visonà, "Gravisca e Puna della Vipera: Le monete", Quaderni Ticinesi 22, 1993, 44, 1, pl. 1, 1 and 1a).The weight standard of this issue is based upon the Corinthian stater (= Attic didrachm) of about 8.6 gm., divided into ten units on the same weight standard as the Sicilian litra.