Triton XXI, Lot: 411. Estimate $2000. Sold for $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

AKARNANIA, Leukas. Mid 2nd-1st centuries BC. AR Drachm (17.5mm, 4.49 g, 11h). Nikoboulos, magistrate. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Club right; ΛEYKAΔIΩN above, ИIKOBOYΛO[C] below; all within oak wreath. Imhoof-Blumer, Akarnaniens, p. 135 = Postolakas pl. III, 689; BCD Akarnania –; HGC 4, 858; SNG Copenhagen 385 var. (magistrate); BMC 104 var. (same). VF, lightly toned, small area of flat strike. Good metal. Extremely rare, none in the BCD Collection, missing from most major public and private collections.

This issue of drachms is among the rarest of Leukas’ coinage. Only five magistrates are known: Damokrates, Damylos, Dion, Lysimachos, and Nikoboulos. Of the major public published collections, only the BM and Copenhagen have any in their holdings, a single drachm each, of Damylos and Lysimachos, respectively. The sole published example of a drachm of Nikoboulos was in P. Lambros’ collection, published by A. Postolakas in 1868 (presumably now in the Numismatic Museum, Athens). CoinArchives contains only one drachm, of the magistrate Damokrates. Perhaps most telling of the rarity of the issue is that not one drachm from any of these magistrates was present in the BCD Collection.