20

Greek coins. Siris and Pyxus. Stater ca 540-510, AR 8.25g.

Currency:CHF Category:Coins & Paper Money / Coins: Ancient Start Price:20,000.00 CHF Estimated At:25,000.00 CHF
Greek coins. Siris and Pyxus. Stater ca 540-510, AR 8.25g.
The sign-up for this auction will close 48 hours before the auction starts. Please make sure you sign up on time. Also, there is NO ABSENTEE BIDDING for this auction. Please plan to bid live during the sale.
Greek coins. Siris and Pyxus. Stater ca. 540-510, AR 8.25g. SIRI / NOS retrograde in archaic characters below and above the exergual line Bull walking l., looking backwards. Rev. PVX retrograde The same type r. in incuse. Traité 2083 (this coin cited, “autre”). Perret I (this coin). AMB 165 (this obverse die). Mangieri, RIN 1981, B7 (this coin). Historia Numorum Italy 1723. Very rare and in exceptional condition for the issue. Unusually well struck and centred on a full flan with a beautiful cabinet tone. About extremely fine. Ex NGSA sale 4, 1996, 16 (miscatalogued). From the duplicate of the Cabinet de Médailles de la Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris. Traded in exchange by Cahn in 1939. This nomos bears witness to the alliance between "Sirinos" and "Pyx" (the two legends appear engraved in the centre of obverse of the coin and in the lower quadrant on the reverse respectively). The word "Sirinos" was thought at one time to be the adjective relating to Siri, the city on the Ionian coast which was well known for its wealth and which was destroyed by the coalition of Sybaris, Metapontum and Croton in the years 570-560. Paola Zancani Montuoro, however, believes that the word in question is a noun and, for a variety of reasons, argues that a city called "Sirinos" (of the Sirini, a population from Lucania of which Pliny the Elder speaks in his "Naturalis historia" III 15, 97) existed and was situated about 30 km from Policastro. It has probably been identified in the ruins of a vast inhabited area on a rocky peak which stretches along the valley of Lauria near Rivello and which is still known as "The City". Policastro Bussentino is the modern name for "Pyx" (Pyxoes), the ancient Lucanian city (on the eponymous bay of Tirreno, now known as the gulf of Policastro, in the province of Salerno). The alliance if the two cities, based on commerce, testifies to Pixunte's importance for Sybari's commercial activity in the VI century (bear in mind that literary sources date its foundation by Micitus to 471). The bull looking backwards, and the coin's weight, are typical of Sybaritic coins.