Velia, Lucania, AR stater, 21 mm, c 365-340 BC. OBV: Head of Athena right, wearing crested helmet, decorated with griffin / REV: Lion crouching right on exergual line; ethnic above. Ex: Moretti and Magnaguti collections This one is much better in hand than in the photo: perfectly centered, old cabinet toning, and a 1949 pedigree....
Nice metal, great centering, great strike, artistic dies, lovely toning, pedigree... winner! Looks like you had a very successful trip
Correction: Athena's helmet is decorated with a Pegasus, not a griffin. I bought this from Ed Waddell's new stock at New York. I had no photo and wrote the description from memory. I just got the coin and photo today, so just checked it more closely and corrected the description I had written earlier.
You are my new hero!! ... AJ (nah) ... TIF (unh-uh) ... doug (well, I'm scared of Doug, so sure, I still cheer for Doug) => but Oh-My-God => Bring-on ancientnut!!
I agree that is a great looking coin and only a thousand times better than any of mine of the city. There are several different poses of the lion including one eating a piece of meat and my favorite one with the lion downing a deer which can to me in 1990. Velia did good work.
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Wow, what a great looking piece. I especially like the old cabinet toning which provides a subtle "golden" hue.
A coin that AJ has held! You can never sell that coin... It is precious to you... lol Excellent piece ancientnut.
