Sale: CNG 72, Lot: 114. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 June 2006.  Sold For $365. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LUCANIA, Poseidonia. Circa 470-445 BC. AR Nomos (7.93 g, 10h). Poseidon advancing right, wielding trident overhead / Bull standing left in circular incuse. SNG ANS -; HN Italy 1114; SNG Copenhagen 1280 (same obv. die). VF, struck with a broken obverse die, die break in center of reverse. Extremely rare variety with ethnic on the left on the obverse.

There are only six known specimens of this rare variety. The Copenhagen specimen is the sole example in a published collection. Another appeared as lot 111 in Naville V (1923). There were also four in the South Italian hoard that Dr. Kraay had been working on at the time of his death (subsequently published by C.E. King as “A mid-fifth century hoard from South Italy” in SNR 1987). All six are struck from the same obverse die as the present coin.