Ex M. L. and Moretti Collections
Century-Old Pedigree

Triton XXII, Lot: 33. Estimate $3000. Sold for $5500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LUCANIA, Metapontion. Circa 430-400 BC. AR Nomos (20mm, 7.78 g, 5h). Head of Demeter left, hair in thin band / Barley ear with leaf to right at base; MET up left field. Noe 330f (this coin); HN Italy 1513; SNG ANS 283 (same dies); Gillet 139 = Jameson 283 (same dies); Pozzi 173 (same dies). Good VF, attractive old cabinet tone, minor deposits on reverse. Rare, and possibly the finest of this issue.

From the Gasvoda Collection. Ex M. L. Collection of Coins of Magna Graecia and Sicily (Numismatica Ars Classica 82, 20 May 2015), lot 14; A. D. Moretti Collection; Classical Numismatic Group 40 (with Numismatica Ars Classica, 4 December 1996), lot 616; Ars Classica XV (2 July 1930), lot 146; Naville V (18 June 1923), lot 456; J. Hirsch XXXII (14 November 1912), lot 2; J. Hirsch XXVI (24 May 1910), lot 223.

In his 1910 sale, Jakob Hirsch remarked that this piece was a “magnificent cabinet piece of great rarity.” Though the rarity of these has slightly decreased over the subsequent century, the beauty of the present piece is still evident.