The Neale Collection of Ancient Greek Coins

Greek Coinages, Rhegium: Tetradrachm, struck 425-420

Obverse: lion’s head facing, olive sprig to right

Reverse: ρηγι-ον: Iokastos seated left on ornate stool, with legs crossed and holding thin staff, coiled serpent below preparing to strike; laurel wreath around

Metal: silver; Attic weight standard; 17.31g/6h

References: Herzfelder 59 [D34/R49]; Lockett 650; Rutter 2491

Condition: Sharply struck on a broad flan from dies of high artistry, extremely fine and very rare £8,000-£12,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Neale Collection of Ancient Greek Coins.

View
Collection

Maison Palombo, Auction 18, Geneva, 17 November 2019, lot 12 [from F. Sternberg 1988]

Many commentators have drawn attention to the sculptural qualities possessed by the coinages of the south Italian cities. Roderick Williams saw the archaising nymph carried on the early fourth century coinage of Velia as an attempt ‘to reproduce the features of an early cult statue’, while Stanley Robinson went further, relaying the possibility that we might find depicted certain staters of Heraklaia a lost work of the great artist Myron. Kenneth Jenkins reached a similar conclusion when he considered the seated figure of Iokastos depicted on the late fifth century coinage of Rhegion. The die used to strike this coin has indeed the ‘virile’ qualities appreciated by Jenkins; the crossed legs and twisted torso at ‘once suggests a real statue’.