Watch List notes:

Italy, Bruttium, Rhegion, silver tetradrachm, c. 356-351 BC, ΡΗΓΙΝΟΣ, laureate head of Apollo left, rev., lion's scalp facing, 17.30g, die axis 2.00, in high relief and virtually as struck, very rare. This coin published: Goldberg, I. & L., Money of the World: Coins That Made History, 2014, 14. Other references: Herzfelder 115; SNG ANS 676, same dies; AMB 229, same dies; ACGC 784; HN Italy 2501. Provenance: The Millennia Collection, Goldberg auction, Beverly Hills, 26 May 2008, lot 6; Dr. Patrick Tan collection; Gemini VII, New York, 9 January 2011, lot 73. Note: With a remarkable portrait of Apollo, this tetradrachm forms part of Rhegion's last issue of silver coins and, unusually for the city's tetradrachm series, uses Apollo's head as the obverse type when it had been the reverse. Although Herzfelder and later authorities (including HN Italy) assigned a date of 356-351 BC to this issue when the city was refounded by Dionysios II of Syracuse, others have seen similarities to the heads of Apollo found on the electrum issues of Agathokles at Syracuse and gold and silver issues of Tauromenium, which date closer to the end of the 4th century BC (see AMB 229-230). However, the strong style of the lion's head on this coin seems to retain the spirit of earlier emissions, as does the higher relief of the head of Apollo, suggesting not only the traditional mid-century date but the possibility that Apollo's portrait as depicted here served as the inspiration for the later coinages. (40000 - 60000 GBP)