Are you as irked as I am when these beautiful coins are struck off-center and heads are missing? I bought this example specifically for the heads. Warrior head, check. Horse head, check. Taras's head, check. Dophin's head, check! I didn't know it when I bought it, but it turns out this is a scarce variety (Vlasto 594), with Taras holding a shield decorated with a hippocamp. The coin has some circulation wear but you can see the hippocamp pretty well at an angle...
Shut up and take my money...here is a blank check, just add as many zeroes as you want. OK, maybe I won't go that far, but that is one amazing coin. Nice amount of details and good centering. That was a good find JA.
That is a good pick. Someone will get lucky to get it. Never seen a hippocamp design on the warriors shield.
Wow. Give me a heads up before you offer that one. A months notice surely I could arrange finances to accomodate.
Mine is a similar type but a bit short on reverse heads. I bought it for the hippocamp from NFA back in 1990 as part of a three defective staters lot. NFA defectives were often good enough for me. The other two had similar good/bad points that disqualified them from being sold singly.
Wow JA and the rest of the coin-gang => fantastic coins (I love the hippocamp shield) Eh-heh-heh ... yah sorry, but I hate missing opportunities to post my baby
Yes! And that's a really nice acquisition with the neat hippocamp shield device. I also like the murex control symbol. Here's the first one I bought this year, which despite the slightly ragged flan is pretty complete apart from a teeny bit off the dolphin rider's head (just noticed that Doug's, Steve's and mine all share this problem). No hippocamp on the shield, but one below the dolphin. CALABRIA, Tarentum AR Nomos. 7.74g, 22mm. CALABRIA, Tarentum, circa 280 BC. Vlasto 700; HN Italy 968. O: Helmeted naked warrior with shield jumping off horse galloping left; EY behind, NIKΩTTAΣ below. R: TAPAΣ, Phalanthus of Tarentum, holding trident and short spear, riding dolphin right; below, hippocamp right, ΣOP to left. Ex Giessener Münzhandlung 81 (1997), Lot 67
I mentioned in another thread that I had a recent arrival of one of these, and today I had the time to take some pictures of it. I really just wanted one with the little dolphin control symbol and this one leaped at me . It has some light old scratches, but as long as they stay mostly in the fields, they never bother me as much as do devices that have major parts missing. CALABRIA, Tarentum Circa 325-281 BC AR Nomos. 7.50g, 20.2mm. Fischer-Bossert 870c (this coin); Vlasto 607; SNG Copenhagen 849; SNG France 1800 (same obverse die). O: Nude rider on horse galloping to right, stabbing with spear held in his right hand and holding two other spears and shield with his left; below, ΣΑ. R: TAPAΣ, Phalanthos riding dolphin to left, holding kantharos in his right hand and trident in his left; below, little dolphin leaping left; K in left field. Ex Schweizerischer Bankverein 29 (28 January 1992), lot 12
My four heads almost all on... Calabria, Taras, Nomos Obv:– Helmeted, nude warrior riding on horse right, transverse spear in right hand, large round shield behind, [ΦI before], ΦHRAE / ΛHTWΣ below. Rev:– [T_A_RAS], Taras astride dolphin left, holding flower & cornucopiae; EI monogram & thymiaterion behind Minted in Calabria, Taras from .c. 272 - 235 B.C. Pheraeletos as magistrate
