Numismatica Ars Classica
Auction 120 6-7 Oct 2020
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Rhegium
Tetradrachm circa 420-410, AR 17.09 g. Lions mask facing. Rev. PEΓINOΣ Laureate head of Apollo r.; behind, olive sprig and in r. field, KPA[TE –Σ]IΠΠO. Herzfelder 64. Jameson 460 (these dies). SNG ANS 657 (this obverse die). Historia Numorum Italy 2494.
Very rare and in unusual condition for this very difficult issue. Struck on very fresh
metal and with a lovely light iridescent tone. Good very fine
Ex Triton I, 1997, 178; Tkalec 29 February 2000, 22 and Nomisma 55, 2017, 2 sales. From a private European and the A.D.M. collections and privately purchased in March 1952 from Barg.... (?).
This beautiful tetradrachm belongs to the early period of what is generally considered the highpoint of the engravers art at Rhegion in the late fifth century BC. Although located on the southern tip of Italy, Rhegium was strongly influenced by artistic developments across the Strait of Messina on the island of Sicily. Like the celebrated "signing artists" of Syracuse, who were enjoying their heyday at the time that the present coin was struck, here the Rhegine engraver Kratesippos has seen fit to sign the excellent reverse die that he created. The treatment of the head of Apollo is also thought to have been inspired by the so-called "Master of the Leaf" engraver responsible for the image of the same god on slightly earlier issues of Katane. However, unlike the Katanaian prototype, here Kratesippos has endowed the god with a series of curls of hair that look remarkably like the coiled serpents one might normally find as part of Medusas hairstyle. It would be going too far to suggest that these locks might have been intended to call to mind Pytho, the great serpent of Delphi slain by Apollo when he took up his abode at this most famous of Greek oracular shrines. The lion mask type used on the obverse was a traditional emblem of the city extending back to the period when Rhegium was ruled by the tyrant Anaxilas (494-476 BC). It seems to have been adopted for the coinage of Rhegion after Anaxilas assisted a group of exiles from Samos in seizing control of Zankle in northern Sicily. The Samian occupiers of Zankle had struck their own coins with a lion scalp device before Anaxilas evicted them and refounded Zankle as Messana in 490 BC. Both Rhegium and Messana employed the same lion mask type in the 480s BC, perhaps to advertise the extension of Anaxilos domain across the Strait. The lion mask remained the regular badge of Rhegion down to the third century BC.
Tetradrachm circa 420-410, AR 17.09 g. Lions mask facing. Rev. PEΓINOΣ Laureate head of Apollo r.; behind, olive sprig and in r. field, KPA[TE –Σ]IΠΠO. Herzfelder 64. Jameson 460 (these dies). SNG ANS 657 (this obverse die). Historia Numorum Italy 2494.
Very rare and in unusual condition for this very difficult issue. Struck on very fresh
metal and with a lovely light iridescent tone. Good very fine
Ex Triton I, 1997, 178; Tkalec 29 February 2000, 22 and Nomisma 55, 2017, 2 sales. From a private European and the A.D.M. collections and privately purchased in March 1952 from Barg.... (?).
This beautiful tetradrachm belongs to the early period of what is generally considered the highpoint of the engravers art at Rhegion in the late fifth century BC. Although located on the southern tip of Italy, Rhegium was strongly influenced by artistic developments across the Strait of Messina on the island of Sicily. Like the celebrated "signing artists" of Syracuse, who were enjoying their heyday at the time that the present coin was struck, here the Rhegine engraver Kratesippos has seen fit to sign the excellent reverse die that he created. The treatment of the head of Apollo is also thought to have been inspired by the so-called "Master of the Leaf" engraver responsible for the image of the same god on slightly earlier issues of Katane. However, unlike the Katanaian prototype, here Kratesippos has endowed the god with a series of curls of hair that look remarkably like the coiled serpents one might normally find as part of Medusas hairstyle. It would be going too far to suggest that these locks might have been intended to call to mind Pytho, the great serpent of Delphi slain by Apollo when he took up his abode at this most famous of Greek oracular shrines. The lion mask type used on the obverse was a traditional emblem of the city extending back to the period when Rhegium was ruled by the tyrant Anaxilas (494-476 BC). It seems to have been adopted for the coinage of Rhegion after Anaxilas assisted a group of exiles from Samos in seizing control of Zankle in northern Sicily. The Samian occupiers of Zankle had struck their own coins with a lion scalp device before Anaxilas evicted them and refounded Zankle as Messana in 490 BC. Both Rhegium and Messana employed the same lion mask type in the 480s BC, perhaps to advertise the extension of Anaxilos domain across the Strait. The lion mask remained the regular badge of Rhegion down to the third century BC.