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Banner Artemide 62E
Lot # 74
Greek Italy. Bruttium, Terina. AR Nomos, c. 440-425 BC. Obv. [TEPINAION]. Head of female (the nymph Terina?) left, wearing ampyx. Rev. Nike seated left on cippus, holding wreath and kerykeion. HN Italy 2579 ; SNG Lloyd 729 (same dies); SNG ANS 811; Holloway & Jenkins 22 (same dies). AR. 7.46 g. 21.50 mm. Attractive example, lightly toned; obverse slightly off centre. Graffiti on reverse (letter H and squared O?). Good VF. Terina, a small Greek city located on the base of Italy’s “toe,” played no conspicuous role in history, but is nonetheless admired for producing some of the loveliest coin designs of antiquity. The exact site of the city remains unknown, but it was believed to have been founded by settlers from Croton in the seventh century BC. All of Terina’s silver coins feature the city’s eponymous nymph on the obverse, with her hair dressed in elaborate ways; these heads were clearly inspired by the image of Arethusa found on contemporary coins of Syracuse. Reverses feature Nike in various charming poses—here, she sits resting one hand on a kerykeion (or caduceus), the staff of Mercury. The numismatist Charles Seltman was so taken by these figures of Nike that he theorized they must have been created by die engravers from Athens, since they “can hardly have been produced save by someone intimately acquainted with the famous Attic Nike balustrade” at the entrance to the Acropolis.
(Freeman & Sear II, 2011, 8 note).