Ex Comte Chandon de Briailles Collection
Extremely Rare Issue

CNG 109, Lot: 43. Estimate $500. Sold for $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BRUTTIUM, Kroton. Circa 480-430 BC. AR Nomos (19mm, 7.52 g, 3h). Dumpy incuse type. Tripod, legs surmounted by wreaths and terminating in lion's feet; (koppa)POTON (retrograde) to left; to right, heron standing left / Incuse tripod as obverse, but wreaths in relief. Gorini –; Attianese –; HN Italy 2102 var. (ethnic); SNG ANS –; SNG Ashmolean –; SNG Lloyd –; Dewing –; Jameson –; Weber –. VF, toned, possibly overstruck. Extremely rare with this form of ethnic.

From the Gasvoda Collection. Ex G. Hirsch 293 (25 September 2013), lot 2057; Auctiones AG 13 (23 June 1983), lot 66; Comte Chandon de Briailles Collection (Part I, Bourgey, 17 June 1959), lot 84.

From the consignor: I am a big fan of trying to understand minting techniques for the incuse coinage. Here is a most unusual example of a die pair that was rotated 90 degrees at the time of striking. As this happened during the “dumpy” period (when the flans got smaller and thicker), the die alignment may not have been as critical as was the case for earlier “spread flan” minting. The dumpy flan period allowed for the use of other cities’ coins to be used directly as undertypes – as was the case here.