Classic Greece. Robert Ready British Museum electrotype. Lucania. Velia. 350-281 B.C. Silver didrachm copy (copper). 21 mm. (Actual coin weighs 7.72 gm). Head of Athena right, helmet with an olive branch, engraver HPA name on helmet; E to upper right / A lion devouring a stag left; ΥΕΛΗΤΕΩΝ above, Δ to right. Head plate 13, 15.

An in-hand experience of the finest of Greek coinage:
In the late 1850's the British Museum hired the seal-maker, Robert Ready, to produce copies of some of the finest coins in the British Museum collection. With an electrotyping technique they had perfected Ready and his sons produced exact replicas of the actual museum coins. They were produced in two parts, an obverse and a reverse. We acquired a select group of some of the most beautiful and important pieces they produced. All of these were direct copper casts of the actual coins and all but lots 38 and 46 have been gilt to illustrate the color of the actual coin, silver or gold.
All electrotypes offered here are in two separate halves.