Nomos AG
Auction 30 6 Nov 2023
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
BRUTTIUM. Kroton. Circa 500-480 BC. Triobol (Silver, 12 mm, 1.17 g, 5 h). ϘΡΟ Tripod with legs ending in lions' paws and with three rings on the bowl; border of dots. Rev. Rooster walking to right. HN III 2131. Kraay F. Of great rarity, one of only two examples known. Toned and well-centered. Rough surfaces, otherwise, about very fine.
From the Dr. Paul Peter Urone Collection and from the collection of A. D. Moretti, Triton III, 30 November 1999, 108 (identified as a diobol), ex Münzen und Medaillen FPL 231, April 1963, 21.
This extremely rare coin is really rather enigmatic. The only other known example is the Weber coin (1006) now in the BM, which was acquired by Weber in 1884 from Rollin in Paris. Why Kroton should have chosen a cock - a familiar symbol for the rising sun (as at Himera, where coins bearing birds stylistically very similar to the one here were struck) - as the reverse for a triobol is a mystery. Supposedly, the letters (?) VVΛ can be read on the Weber/BM piece, but no satisfactory reason for their existence has been adduced.
From the Dr. Paul Peter Urone Collection and from the collection of A. D. Moretti, Triton III, 30 November 1999, 108 (identified as a diobol), ex Münzen und Medaillen FPL 231, April 1963, 21.
This extremely rare coin is really rather enigmatic. The only other known example is the Weber coin (1006) now in the BM, which was acquired by Weber in 1884 from Rollin in Paris. Why Kroton should have chosen a cock - a familiar symbol for the rising sun (as at Himera, where coins bearing birds stylistically very similar to the one here were struck) - as the reverse for a triobol is a mystery. Supposedly, the letters (?) VVΛ can be read on the Weber/BM piece, but no satisfactory reason for their existence has been adduced.