Triton XXII, Lot: 26. Estimate $3000. Sold for $6000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LUCANIA, Metapontion. Circa 470-440 BC. AR Nomos (21mm, 8.22 g, 12h). Ear of barley with six grains; grasshopper upward in left field, ATƎM up right field / Incuse ear of barley with seven grains; ATƎM up left field; to right, outline of dolphin downward. Noe Class XII, 260 corr. (dolphin not noted; same dies); HN Italy 1486 corr. (same); SNG ANS 258 corr. (same; same dies). Good VF, lightly toned. High relief. Very rare.

From the Gasvoda Collection. Ex CNG inventory 954980 (June 2013); Dr. William J. Conte Collection; Classical Numismatic Group 72 (14 June 2006), lot 105.

The dolphin was not visible on any of the examples seen by Noe, and thus is not noted in his study. Nearly all of the published examples are poorly struck, and thus the appearance of the dolphin was apparently not discovered until this piece and another (CNG E-140, lot 7) were offered in 2006. The dolphin does not appear among the various symbols employed on the dies of this issue; however, it is employed, in an incuse or outline form, on the reverse of a few archaic issues, circa 540-510 BC (cf. HN Italy 1742).