Nomos AG
Auction 26 21 May 2023
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BRUTTIUM. Pandosia. Circa 375-350 BC. Triobol (Silver, 11.5 mm, 1.03 g, 6 h). Head of Hera three-quarters facing to right, wearing high, decorated polos, elaborate pendant earrings and pearl necklace. Rev. ΠΑΝ[ΔΟΣΙΝ] Pan seated right, on rocks draped with a goat skin, holding two spears; in field to left, here off the flan, ΝΙΚΟ. Evans 1912, pl. III, 8. HN III 2452. SNG ANS 601. Extremely rare. Toned and with a most ambitious design. Corroded surfaces and reverse off-struck with parts of the design missing, otherwise, good very fine.
From the "Collection sans Pareille" of Ancient Greek Fractions, ex LHS 102, 29 April 2008, 52.
The coinage of Pandosia is very possibly the rarest of all those struck in Magna Graecia: one issue, apparently only of staters, is known from the later 5th century and a second, of c. 375-360, to which the present piece belongs, consists of staters, drachms and triobols. All the coins are not only of the highest rarity, but they are also some of the most beautiful Greek coins ever struck. Why such an obscure town should have produced such superb coins is a mystery. In the late 19th century the appreciation of the coinage of Pandosia was such that a stater of this issue reached a price that was so enormous, that in today's terms it was about the most expensive Greek coin ever sold. In the Carfrae sale (SWH, 23 May 1894) a lovely stater of the second issue appeared as lot 34. It was bought by W.T. Ready for E. P. Warren, who himself acquired it for a collection he was forming for Catherine Page Perkins that was destined for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (now BMFA 196). The price was £185. This may not seem all that much but in the same sale a superb Naxos tetradrachm (lot 56, now in the McClean collection in Cambridge) went for £28, a lovely Syracusan tetradrachm with a facing head of Arethusa by Kimon went for £51 (lot 72), and an equally lovely Amphipolis for £56 (also in Cambridge). On this basis the Pandosia would be now worth more than 500,000.- Swiss francs! Of course, one can point out that tastes change: in the same sale a 32 Litrai with a portrait of Hieron II made an enormous £130 (lot 82), a lovely tetradrachm of Pyrrhus sold for £120 (lot 145), a tetradrachm of Lebedus went for £82 (lot 253) and a first-rate discobolos tetradrachm of Kos went for only £16 (lot 269, now in Cambridge as well)! In any event, the present coin is one of the very few coins of this city to come on the market in the past generation.
From the "Collection sans Pareille" of Ancient Greek Fractions, ex LHS 102, 29 April 2008, 52.
The coinage of Pandosia is very possibly the rarest of all those struck in Magna Graecia: one issue, apparently only of staters, is known from the later 5th century and a second, of c. 375-360, to which the present piece belongs, consists of staters, drachms and triobols. All the coins are not only of the highest rarity, but they are also some of the most beautiful Greek coins ever struck. Why such an obscure town should have produced such superb coins is a mystery. In the late 19th century the appreciation of the coinage of Pandosia was such that a stater of this issue reached a price that was so enormous, that in today's terms it was about the most expensive Greek coin ever sold. In the Carfrae sale (SWH, 23 May 1894) a lovely stater of the second issue appeared as lot 34. It was bought by W.T. Ready for E. P. Warren, who himself acquired it for a collection he was forming for Catherine Page Perkins that was destined for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (now BMFA 196). The price was £185. This may not seem all that much but in the same sale a superb Naxos tetradrachm (lot 56, now in the McClean collection in Cambridge) went for £28, a lovely Syracusan tetradrachm with a facing head of Arethusa by Kimon went for £51 (lot 72), and an equally lovely Amphipolis for £56 (also in Cambridge). On this basis the Pandosia would be now worth more than 500,000.- Swiss francs! Of course, one can point out that tastes change: in the same sale a 32 Litrai with a portrait of Hieron II made an enormous £130 (lot 82), a lovely tetradrachm of Pyrrhus sold for £120 (lot 145), a tetradrachm of Lebedus went for £82 (lot 253) and a first-rate discobolos tetradrachm of Kos went for only £16 (lot 269, now in Cambridge as well)! In any event, the present coin is one of the very few coins of this city to come on the market in the past generation.