Ex Lambros, Benson, and Bunbury Collections

5661278.

BRUTTIUM, Terina. Circa 400-356 BC. AR Nomos (19mm, 8.12 g, 12h). Head of the nymph Terina right, wearing triple-pendant earring and beaded necklace; TEPINAIΩN to right / Nike seated left on plinth, holding out right hand upon which a small bird alights, left hand resting on plinth. Regling, Terina 83 (dies OO/υυυ); Holloway & Jenkins 84 (same obv. die); HN Italy 2629; SNG ANS 852 (same obv. die); Weber 1155 (same dies). Attractively toned, a few hairlines, slight die wear on obverse. Good VF. Struck from dies of fine style.

Ex Jean P. Lambros Collection (J. Hirsch XXIX, 9 November 1910), lot 67; Frank Sherman Benson Collection (Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 3 February 1909), lot 164; Sir Edward Bunbury Collection (Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 15 June 1896), lot 242 (part of).

The high artistry evident on Terina’s coinage seems out of all proportion to any historical accounts for this city atop the “toe” of Italy, which so thoroughly disappeared from record that no systematic excavations were undertaken on its site until 1997. Its coinage has been known and collected since the Renaissance, where the delicate beauty of its female heads and the graceful seated Nikes were greatly admired. As author R. Holloway noted, “the nymphs of Terina recalled the maidens of the Parthenon frieze and the Victories of the reverses were the numismatic counterparts of the Victories of the Nike Temple balustrade.”