‡ Italy, Romano-Campanian, uncertain mint, didrachm, c. 276-270 BC, [RO]MANO, laureate head of Apollo left, rev., horse prancing right; above, star of eight rays, 7.13g, die axis 2.00 (Crawford 15/1a; BMCRR II, 22; Babelon 6; Syd. 4), struck on a slightly irregular flan, well toned, good very fine Provenance: L. Hamburger 95, 10 May 1932, lot 2; H.C. Hoskier collection; A. Hess, 15 February 1934, lot 541; August Voirol collection, Münzen und Medaillen 38, 6 December 1968, lot 91; Tradart, Geneva, 16 November 1995, lot 130; European Connoisseur collection (formed before 2002).Note: In December 1905, H.C. Hoskier (1864-1938), a renowned Biblical scholar and collector of Greek coins, corresponded with President Theodore Roosevelt and Augustus Saint-Gaudens regarding the development of the latter’s now-famous coinage designs. The correspondence indicates that Hoskier was the first to suggest to Saint-Gaudens the use of a flying eagle as a design motif for the contemplated issue. Saint-Gaudens’s familiarity with ancient Greek coinage stretched well back to his early career as a cameo cutter, and in one letter to Hoskier the artist drily noted that he had used the head of Arethusa on Syracusan coins as a model, but that his resulting output had been virtually unsaleable. For another coin from Hoskier’s collection, see lot 89.

Estimate: GBP 1500-2000