Watch List notes:

Greek coins

Calabria, Tarentum. Nomos circa 510-495, AR 7.92 g. TARAS retrograde Oecist seated on dolphin r., left arm extended; below, shell. Rev. The same type l. incuse. Vlasto 67 (these dies). Fischer-Bossert 6. SNG ANS 826 (these dies). Historia Numorum Italy 826.
Very rare. A lovely specimen of this difficult and desirable issue, struck on a full
flan and with a light old cabinet tone. Good very fine
Privately purchased from CNG in 2008 (inventory number 802126).Dating from the late sixth century, this nomos shows Phalantus naked, riding a dolphin, expressing a motif destined for popular success in the coins of Taras: the dolphin brings Phalantus safe and sound across the sea (also evidenced by the presence of a pecten in the lower field of the coin), and conveys him to Italy, according to the dictate of the Delphic oracle. We learn from the Periegesis of Greece of Pausania (II cent. A.D.) that statues of Taras, Phalantus, and Phalantus' dolphin (cf. Paus. X 13) were among the votive offerings (anathemata) presented to Delphi by the Tarantines with a fifth of the spoils taken from the Peucetii and the Iapygians. The reverse has the same representation as the obverse, in incuse, using a well-known technique of early coinage that was deployed at many other Southern Italian cities besides Taras