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Lot 40
BRUTTIUM, Kaulonia. Circa 525-500 BC. AR Nomos (31mm, 7.91 g, 12h). EF.
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Bids:
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Live Auction
CNG Feature Auction 129
Live bidding begins May 13, 2025 at 9:00 AM EDT
(18d 2h left for internet bidding)
Category
Description
BRUTTIUM, Kaulonia. Circa 525-500 BC. AR Nomos (31mm, 7.91 g, 12h). Apollo advancing right, holding branch aloft in right hand, left arm extended, upon which a small daimon, holding branch in each hand, runs right; KAVΛ to left; to right, stag standing right, head reverted; dot-and-cable border / Incuse of obverse, but daimon in outline and no ethnic; radiate border. Noe, Caulonia, Group A, 14; Gorini 3; HN Italy 2035; SNG ANS 147 (same obv. die); McClean 1591 (same dies). Wonderful deep old cabinet tone. EF.
Ex Mark & Lottie Salton Collection (Stack’s Bowers Galleries, 14 January 2022), lot 4072.
Kaulonia was founded in the 7th century BC by Achaean Greeks. The location, on the underside of Italy's "toe,” has long since disappeared beneath the waves, but underwater archaeologists have located more than 100 fluted columns, likely for a large shrine to Apollo, the deity depicted on the city's beautiful coinage. On this exceptional piece, Apollo's nude body is shown striding to right, with a small winged daimon on his left arm; to his right stands a stag, sacred to both Apollo and his sister Artemis. The design clearly owes much to the coinage of nearby Poseidonia, on whose coins Poseidon is seen in a similar pose. The unusual fabric of this piece follows a style peculiar to Greek southern Italy in the archaic period: A broad, thin flan, obverse depicted in relief, the reverse repeating the obverse motif, but incuse, and reversed. The reasons for the popularity of this fabric are poorly understood. A connection has been postulated to the dualistic religio-political movement of Pythagoras, whose followers found safe haven in Kaulonia after being driven from Kroton in circa 510 BC, but this remains entirely speculative. Whatever the reason, striking such coins required a high degree of technical skill, competence, and quality control in all phases of production, including engraving and aligning the dies, preparing the flan, and delivering a powerful and uniform hammer blow.
The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 129 lots will be determined during the live online sale that will be held on 13-14 May 2025. This lot is in Session One, which will begin 13 May at 9 AM ET.
Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.
We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.
Ex Mark & Lottie Salton Collection (Stack’s Bowers Galleries, 14 January 2022), lot 4072.
Kaulonia was founded in the 7th century BC by Achaean Greeks. The location, on the underside of Italy's "toe,” has long since disappeared beneath the waves, but underwater archaeologists have located more than 100 fluted columns, likely for a large shrine to Apollo, the deity depicted on the city's beautiful coinage. On this exceptional piece, Apollo's nude body is shown striding to right, with a small winged daimon on his left arm; to his right stands a stag, sacred to both Apollo and his sister Artemis. The design clearly owes much to the coinage of nearby Poseidonia, on whose coins Poseidon is seen in a similar pose. The unusual fabric of this piece follows a style peculiar to Greek southern Italy in the archaic period: A broad, thin flan, obverse depicted in relief, the reverse repeating the obverse motif, but incuse, and reversed. The reasons for the popularity of this fabric are poorly understood. A connection has been postulated to the dualistic religio-political movement of Pythagoras, whose followers found safe haven in Kaulonia after being driven from Kroton in circa 510 BC, but this remains entirely speculative. Whatever the reason, striking such coins required a high degree of technical skill, competence, and quality control in all phases of production, including engraving and aligning the dies, preparing the flan, and delivering a powerful and uniform hammer blow.
The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 129 lots will be determined during the live online sale that will be held on 13-14 May 2025. This lot is in Session One, which will begin 13 May at 9 AM ET.
Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.
We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.
