Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 673. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $1900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LUCANIA, Metapontion. Time of Alexander the Molossian, circa 334-330 BC. AV Sixth Stater (1.30 g, 3h). Achaean standard. Struck circa 334-332 BC. Head of Hera right, wearing stephane and earring / META, six-grained barley ear with curly leaf to right. Johnston G2 (same dies); SNG ANS -; SNG Copenhagen -; HN Italy 1579. Good VF. Extremely rare, only one example recorded by Johnston. ($1500)

Ex ADM Collection (Numismatica Ars Classica P, 12 May 2005), lot 1059; Numismatica Ars Classica A (27 February 1991), lot 1110.

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