Lucania. Sybaris. 550-510 BC. AR Nomos (8.31g, 12h). AMB 169; Schefold 442 (this coin). Old cabinet tone. Perfectly centered and struck. A magnificent specimen in the finest style of the period. Choice extremely fine. From a European private collection; Münzen & Medaillen 1975 (52) lot 47; former Robert Käppeli (1900-2000) collection

The first coins struck in Italy are of a unique and original form, whose invention has been attributed to none other than Pythagoras, the famous philosopher and mathematician. Impressed in relief on one side and incuse or intaglio on the other, perhaps adopted from repoussé work, these silver nomos were struck on the Italic-Achaean weight standard of about 8 grams which on the authority of Aristotle was called nomos, meaning 'law or convention'.