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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 
85, Lot: 10. Estimate $200.
Sold for $180. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of EPIROS. Pyrrhos. 297-272 BC. AR Octobol (19mm, 5.66 gm). Syracuse mint. Struck circa 278-275 BC. Head of Persephone left, wearing grain-ear wreath; altar and A behind / Athena advancing left, seen from behind, brandishing shield and spear. BMC Thessaly -; SNG ANS (Sicily) 828 (same obverse die); Hunterian pg. 13, 3 (same dies). Attractively toned VF, spot of encrustation on obverse. A rare historical type.

From 280 BC, Pyrrhos was fighting against the Romans in Italy and Sicily on behalf of the Greeks there, and although he was ultimately successful after the battle of Asculum in 279, his losses were such that he had to withdraw to his Sicilian base. In Sicily, he engaged the Carthaginians, then Roman allies, and almost forced them from the island before departing back to Italy, where he was finally defeated by the Romans at the battle of Beneventum in 275. It is likely that this coin's issue was either related to his war against the Carthaginians, or else in preparation for his return to Italy.