★ Dies by “The Master of the Rhegion Apollo” ★

BRUTTIUM, Rhegion. Circa 420-415/0 BC. AR Tetradrachm (25.5mm, 17.15 g, 12h). Dies by “the Master of the Rhegium Apollo”. Facing lion mask / Head of Apollo right, wearing laurel wreath; olive sprig to left, PHΓINOΣ to right. Herzfelder 69 (D40/R57); HN Italy 2494; SNG ANS 657–9; Gillet 316 (same rev. die); McClean 1872 (same dies). Old cabinet tone, small patch of find patina at edge on reverse. Near EF.

Lot includes an old French Collection ticket.

This magnificent tetradrachm is from a series at Rhegion that is regarded as having the most finely engraved dies of all the numismatic output of the mint. The earliest phase features dies signed by the artist Kratesippos, but the later unsigned dies, such as were used here, are regarded as the pinnacle of this period at Rhegion. Herzfelder called the engraver of these dies “the Master of the Rhegium Apollo.” While the style of Apollo on these dies was conventionally considered to have been influenced by the “Master of the Leaf” of the slightly earlier issues of Katane, R.R. Holloway suggests that there was actually a common prototype for both issues, which served as a model for coinages as far away as the Chalkidian League. This high period of artistry at Rhegion coincides with the famed issues of the “signing artists” of Sicily, and was only brought to a conclusion with the sack of the city by Dionysios I of Syracuse in 386 BC.