Lot 3253

Description

Italy, Lucania, Metapontum, (c.400-350 B.C.), silver nomos, stater or didrachm, (7.710 grams), obv. female head of Demeter to right with by a fillet encircling the head four times with loose knots at the back, dotted border, rev. corn ear, to left META**PONT[ION]* conventionalized lily (lotus) above the leaf on right, (cf.S.409, Noe 481i [p.84 This Coin], SNG ANS 364 [same dies], SNG Cop. 1200 (same dies), Jameson 287 [This Coin], SNG Lloyd 356). Toned, nearly extremely fine and a rare type.

Ex Sir Arthur John Evans and R. Jameson Collections and subsequently acquired from Jean Elsen Sale 63 (lot 108) with his ticket. Sir Arthur John Evans (1851-1941), was an English archaeologist and numismatist. He was (1884-1908) keeper of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford giving it many of his Greek coins. From 1900 to 1935 he conducted excavations on the Greek island of Crete, principally at Knossos, and there uncovered the remains of the previously unknown Minoan civilization . He devised a Minoan chronology spanning several thousand years that is still considered essentially accurate. Evans devoted considerable time and expense to the reconstruction of the most impressive feature of the civilization, the palace, at Knossos.