Rare & Enigmatic Type

367, Lot: 24. Estimate $300. Sold for $1100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BRUTTIUM, Medma. 4th century BC. Æ (22mm, 9.59 g, 1h). Female head (nymph or Persephone?) right; overturned hydria behind, horizontal crescent below chin / Nude male seated left on rock covered with animal skin, holding crab above a dog seated at his side. Gorini, Studio 4-5 var.; HN Italy 2427; SNG ANS 594 var.; SNG Morcom 442 corr.; Virzi 357 (this coin). VF, pale green patina that is slightly chipped around edge, scattered encrustation. Rare.

From the Edgar L. Owen Collection. Ex Thomas Virzi Collection (1881-1974), 357.

An interesting type which has yet to be satisfactorily explained. This particular variant was first described by Warwick Wroth over a century ago (“Greek coins acquired by the British Museum,” NumChron XX [1900], pp. 4-5), where the reverse figure is described as “...a river god – either the Bruttian Metaurus, or the local river now called Mesima” based on the crab being held in the outstretched right hand. In addition to the crab, other variants include the figure holding a patera (Gorini 5; SNG Lloyd 660) or skyphos (Ars Classica XVII, lot 101; CNG 87, lot 195 [both misdescribed]). More recent scholarship has favored an identification of the figure as Pan.

Thomas Virzi (1881-1974) was an assistant to the renowned Dr. Jacob Hirsch and sold a portion of his collection of Sicilian and Southern Italian bronzes with that firm in 1907. Additional coins were sold privately after his death, as well as in Leu 6 (8 May 1973) and Malloy XVII (1 December 1980). The only complete record of his important collection is a series of plates illustrating 2238 pieces.