Lot 1743

Description

Italy, Campania, Nola, (c.400-390 B.C.), silver Stater or nomos, (6.697 grams), obv. head of helmeted Athena right with owl and wreath on helmet, AE behind neck, rev. man-headed bull walking to right, AE below, above **[N]WLAIWN, (cf.S.312 [£275], Rutter 1 [obv. die 1, reverse die 1]). Good fine/fine and very rare.

Rutter in his 1979 definitive study on this coinage knew of only 194 examples of this mint in all the public and published private collections. Almost all known coins of this mint are worn. Only four examples are known for this die combination and two of these are at the Naples Museum collection. This obverse die was also used for Hyria, another interesting example of die transfereance.