Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 672. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $2800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LUCANIA, Metapontion. Time of Alexander the Molossian, circa 334-330 BC. AV Third Stater (2.61 g, 5h). Achaean standard. Struck circa 334-332 BC. Head of Hera right, wearing stephane and earring / METAPON, six-grained barley ear with curly leaf to right; bird perched right on left. Johnston G1 (same dies); SNG ANS 395; SNG Copenhagen -; HN Italy 1578; SNG Lockett 406. Good VF. Very rare. ($2000)

Ex James A. Ferrendelli Collection (Triton VII, 13 January 2004), lot 25.

As with many of the cities of Magna Graecia, the gold issues of Metapontion are typically associated with periods of abnormal military expenditure. The similarity of the head of Hera to that on the issues of Tarentum during the time of Alexander, and the exceptional appearance of Hera on a coin of Metapontion, indicate that this issue was struck when the city was allied with the Molossian.