Heritage World Coin Auctions
ANA Signature Sale 3048 11 August 2016
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LUCANIA. Metapontum. Time of Pyrrhus (ca. 290-279 BC). AV tetrobol or third-stater (13mm, 2.84 gm, 5h). Attic standard. ΛEYKIΠΠOΣ, bearded head of Leucippus right, wearing crested Corinthian helmet, pushed back on head, decorated with Scylla hurling stone / Two barley ears of six grains, each with leaf; M-E across outer fields, ΣI between. Johnston G5.1 (same dies). HN Italy 1630. SNG ANS 397–8. Rare and exceptional, deeply struck on a broad flan and displaying considerable luster. NGC Choice AU 5/5 - 4/5, Fine Style. From the time he became king of Epirus in 319 BC, the handsome and charismatic Pyrrhus had designs of emulating Alexander the Great's career of conquest. He made little headway against the successors of Alexander in the east, so turned his eyes to the wide-open west. An opportunity came in 280 BC, when the city of Tarentum in southern Italy sought his assistance in resisting the expanding power of Rome. Landing in Italy with his well-trained army and several war elephants, he marched against the Roman consul Publius Valerius Laevinus and defeated him near Heraclea. Though the disciplined Macedonian-style phalanx and elephants terrified the Romans, they put up a bitter struggle and inflicted heavy casualties. Pyrrhus won a second, even more costly victory at Ausculum in 279 BC, after which he is said to have remarked, "another such 'victory' and I am finished!" Thus was born the phrase "Pyrrhic victory," meaning a battle won at such a high cost that it might as well be a defeat. The presence of Pyrrhus in southern Italy and Sicily soon amounted to an occupation, with the "hosting" cities forced to strike coins to pay the ravenous mercenary army. This attractive gold piece of Metapontum is one such issue, displaying an appropriately militant helmeted male head (Leucippus, founder of Metapontum) of exceptional style.
Estimate: 5000-7000 USD
LUCANIA. Metapontum. Time of Pyrrhus (ca. 290-279 BC). AV tetrobol or third-stater (13mm, 2.84 gm, 5h). Attic standard. ΛEYKIΠΠOΣ, bearded head of Leucippus right, wearing crested Corinthian helmet, pushed back on head, decorated with Scylla hurling stone / Two barley ears of six grains, each with leaf; M-E across outer fields, ΣI between. Johnston G5.1 (same dies). HN Italy 1630. SNG ANS 397–8. Rare and exceptional, deeply struck on a broad flan and displaying considerable luster. NGC Choice AU 5/5 - 4/5, Fine Style. From the time he became king of Epirus in 319 BC, the handsome and charismatic Pyrrhus had designs of emulating Alexander the Great's career of conquest. He made little headway against the successors of Alexander in the east, so turned his eyes to the wide-open west. An opportunity came in 280 BC, when the city of Tarentum in southern Italy sought his assistance in resisting the expanding power of Rome. Landing in Italy with his well-trained army and several war elephants, he marched against the Roman consul Publius Valerius Laevinus and defeated him near Heraclea. Though the disciplined Macedonian-style phalanx and elephants terrified the Romans, they put up a bitter struggle and inflicted heavy casualties. Pyrrhus won a second, even more costly victory at Ausculum in 279 BC, after which he is said to have remarked, "another such 'victory' and I am finished!" Thus was born the phrase "Pyrrhic victory," meaning a battle won at such a high cost that it might as well be a defeat. The presence of Pyrrhus in southern Italy and Sicily soon amounted to an occupation, with the "hosting" cities forced to strike coins to pay the ravenous mercenary army. This attractive gold piece of Metapontum is one such issue, displaying an appropriately militant helmeted male head (Leucippus, founder of Metapontum) of exceptional style.
Estimate: 5000-7000 USD