Lot 1736

Description

Italy, Campania, Hyria, (c.405-400 B.C.), silver stater or nomos, (6.915 grams), obv. head of helmeted Athena to left, crested helmet, with owl and wreath on helmet, rev. man-headed bull to right, above traces of YDINA retrograde, (cf.S.294 [£200], Rutter 41 [obv. die 26, rev. die 35], Hunter 9 [same dies], Weber 315 [same dies]). Off centred on obverse, otherwise fine/very good, very rare.

This and the next few lots come from a major recent find. Rutter (copies of this book are in this sale) in his 1979 exhaustive study of this mint knew of only 414 examples of this mint in all of the public and the published private collections. Almost all examples known from this mint are worn coins. Only four examples are known from this die combination and two of these are in the public collections.