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Artemide Aste s.r.l.
Auction 57E  8-9 Jan 2022
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Lot 129

Starting price: 250 EUR
Price realized: 270 EUR
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Greek Italy. Bruttium, Terina. AR Stater, c. 410-400 BC. HN Italy 2614; Regling 59; Holloway-Jenkins 59. AR. 7.36 g. 19.00 mm. VF. Terina, a small Greek city located on the base of Italy's "toe," played no conspicuous role in history, but is nonetheless admired for producing some of the loveliest coin designs of antiquity. The exact site of the city remains unknown, but it was believed to have been founded by settlers from Croton in the seventh century BC. All of Terina's silver coins feature the city's eponymous nymph on the obverse, with her hair dressed in elaborate ways; these heads were clearly inspired by the image of Arethusa found on contemporary coins of Syracuse. Reverses feature Nike in various charming poses-here, she sits resting one hand on a kerykeion (or caduceus), the staff of Mercury. The numismatist Charles Seltman was so taken by these figures of Nike that he theorized they must have been created by die engravers from Athens, since they "can hardly have been produced save by someone intimately acquainted with the famous Attic Nike balustrade" at the entrance to the Acropolis.
(Freeman & Sear II, 2011, 8 note).
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