BRUTTIUM, Rhegion. Circa 461-445 BC. AR Drachm (4.21 gm). Lion's head facing / RECI-NOS, male seated left, holding staff; all within wreath. Herzfelder 27 (D16/R23); SNG ANS 648 (same dies). Toned, good VF. Rare. $1,500.
CNR XXVII, June 2002, lot 4.
Kraay in "Fifth century over-strikes of Rhegium and Messana," Atti Convegno I, pp. 141-150, convincingly lowers to about 450 Herzfelder’s starting date for the lion’s mask/Iokastos series of tetradracms, drachms, litrae and fractions on the Attic-Euboic standard contemporarily current in Sicily. This issue belongs to a period in the history of Rhegion, well after the death of Anaxilas in 476/5 and the expulsion of his successors in 461, of which little is known. J. P. Six in "Rhegium-Iokastos," NC 1989, convincingly identifies the seated figure on the reverse as the traditional oekist of the city, Iokastos, who so the story ran, met his death from the bite of a serpent, which can be seen coiled round the back leg of the chair of some specimens.
