Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 36. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $1700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BRUTTIUM, Lokroi Epizephryioi. Time of Pyrrhos of Epiros. Circa 280-275 BC. AV 1/10 Stater (0.94 gm). Attic standard. Struck circa 280 BC. LO (retrograde), head of eagle left with serpent in its beak / Winged thunderbolt. SNG ANS 498; SNG Lloyd -; SNG Copenhagen 1857 (same obverse die); Jameson 447; Gulbenkian -; Pozzi 795 (same dies); Weber -; HN Italy 2346. Toned VF, weak strike in center, partial obverse double-strike. ($2000)

From the James A. Ferrendelli Collection. Ex George & Robert Stevenson Collection (Classical Numismatic Group XXVI, 11 June 1993), lot 15; Classical Numismatic Group 28 (8 December 1993), lot 26; Münzen und Medaillen 68 (15 April 1986), lot 79.

This issue has been attributed to the period of either Alexander the Molossian (Pozzi) or Pyrrhos of Eprios (Kraay), as both used the thunderbolt as a representative symbol on their coinage. Kraay's arguement is more persuasive: the average weight of these is more proportional to the denominational system of gold coinage in Magna Graecia during the third century, and a parallel issue struck at Tarentum has been definitively placed during the time of Pyrrhos (cf. HN Italy 992).