The New York Sale
Auction 40 11 January 2017
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ANCIENT COINS, ANCIENT GREEK COINS, Bruttium, Kroton. Silver Nomos (8.02 g), ca. 530-500 BC. QPO, Tripod with legs terminating in lion's feet, serpents rising from bowl. Rev. Incuse tripod as obverse. (Gorini 4; Attianese 1; SNG ANS 228; SNG Lloyd 591; HN Italy 2075). Very attractive cabinet toned. Nearly extremely fine.
It still remains unclear as to why the distinctive incuse type coinage developed in Magna Graecia during the Archaic period. Most modern explanations have tended to be unsatisfactory or problematic. Some have suggested that it may have been introduced because the thin-flanned coins could (supposedly) be stacked more easily while others have claimed a need to obliterate the types of imported foreign coin, although there is little evidence for such early importation. Still others have claimed a connection between the technique and Pythagorean philosophical views. The suggestion that coin production among the incuse issuing cities was influenced by local traditions of repoussé metalwork is perhaps the most convincing of the proposed explanations.
Estimate: $ 3,500
It still remains unclear as to why the distinctive incuse type coinage developed in Magna Graecia during the Archaic period. Most modern explanations have tended to be unsatisfactory or problematic. Some have suggested that it may have been introduced because the thin-flanned coins could (supposedly) be stacked more easily while others have claimed a need to obliterate the types of imported foreign coin, although there is little evidence for such early importation. Still others have claimed a connection between the technique and Pythagorean philosophical views. The suggestion that coin production among the incuse issuing cities was influenced by local traditions of repoussé metalwork is perhaps the most convincing of the proposed explanations.
Estimate: $ 3,500