Heritage World Coin Auctions
NYINC Signature Sale 3061 7-8 Jan 2018
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Ancients
SICILY. Selinus. Ca. 460-440 BC. AR didrachm (24mm, 8.57 gm, 9h). NGC Choice VF 5/5 - 4/5, edge marks. Σ-Ε-ΛΙ-NO-TI-ON, Heracles, naked, to right, raising left leg and pressing knee against Cretan bull while grasping its horn with left hand, brandishing club in right hand / HYΨ-AΣ, river-god Hypsas, nude, standing left, holding branch and patera, pouring libation over altar around which a serpent twines; to right, heron walking right; above, celery leaf. HGC 2, 1224 (R2). Rizzo pl. XXXI, 16 (this obverse die). SNG Lloyd 1252. SNG ANS 704 (same dies). Very rare! Attractively toned and one of the finest specimens extant.
Ex Chayette & Cheval Numismatique (28 October 2013), lot 24.
Located on the southwestern coast of Sicily, Selinus was one of the earliest Sicilian cities to embrace the invention of coinage. Its first coins, struck on the Corinthian standard circa 540 BC, bore a selinon (celery) leaf as a canting pun on the city name. By the mid fifth century BC, Selinus had switched to the Attic standard and was producing coins of great artistry. The obverse of this rare didrachm depicts Heracles subduing the Cretan bull, an image of athletic vigor and dynamism. The reverse portrays the river god Hypsas, not as the usual man-faced bull, but as an idealized youth sacrificing over a shrine.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 3500-4500 USD
SICILY. Selinus. Ca. 460-440 BC. AR didrachm (24mm, 8.57 gm, 9h). NGC Choice VF 5/5 - 4/5, edge marks. Σ-Ε-ΛΙ-NO-TI-ON, Heracles, naked, to right, raising left leg and pressing knee against Cretan bull while grasping its horn with left hand, brandishing club in right hand / HYΨ-AΣ, river-god Hypsas, nude, standing left, holding branch and patera, pouring libation over altar around which a serpent twines; to right, heron walking right; above, celery leaf. HGC 2, 1224 (R2). Rizzo pl. XXXI, 16 (this obverse die). SNG Lloyd 1252. SNG ANS 704 (same dies). Very rare! Attractively toned and one of the finest specimens extant.
Ex Chayette & Cheval Numismatique (28 October 2013), lot 24.
Located on the southwestern coast of Sicily, Selinus was one of the earliest Sicilian cities to embrace the invention of coinage. Its first coins, struck on the Corinthian standard circa 540 BC, bore a selinon (celery) leaf as a canting pun on the city name. By the mid fifth century BC, Selinus had switched to the Attic standard and was producing coins of great artistry. The obverse of this rare didrachm depicts Heracles subduing the Cretan bull, an image of athletic vigor and dynamism. The reverse portrays the river god Hypsas, not as the usual man-faced bull, but as an idealized youth sacrificing over a shrine.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 3500-4500 USD