Naxos
Chalcidian drachm circa 500, AR 5.73 g. Ivy-wreathed head of Dionysus l., with pointed beard and hair in form of dots, falling in waves over neck. Rev. NAXION Bunch of grapes hanging from stalk between two leaves. SNG ANS 514. Rizzo p. 153, fig. 36 VII (this coin). Cahn –, obverse V 33, reverse R 39.
Very rare. A superb portrait of Archaic style struck on a full flan, lovely
old cabinet tone and extremely fine

Ex Leu 30, 1982, 36; Sotheby's 5 July 1995, Two Hundred Highly Important Greek and Roman Coins, 18; Leu 83, 2002, 74 and Nomos 3, 2011, 19 sales. From the Spina collection and from the Caltabiano hoard (IGCH 2061), found before 1946.
The coinage of Naxos is especially useful as a guide to Greek art style on coinage down to about 400 B.C. The four major issues present different styles of art - a feature unequalled in so compact a manner at any other Greek mint. This first issue is fully Archaic, the second, attributed to the Aetna Master, combines the qualities of the late Archaic and the early Classical, the third is fully Classical, and the fourth offers a significantly different version of a familiar composition, as Dionysus is shown as an effeminate young man with his hair drawn into a bun at the nape of the neck. It is hard to imagine a more perfect male head of the Archaic age than the one on this early coin of Naxos. It compares so favourably with Athenian Black Figure paintings of c. 575-525 B.C. (especially works of the Heidelberg Painter) that we must seriously consider them to be a source of inspiration for this engraver. We should also see this coin as an archaising effort, as naturalism of form had already begun to find its place in Greek art by the time this coin was struck. The viewer's attention is drawn to the eye, mouth, nose and cheek of Dionysus, as they are perfectly rendered and framed by the roughly hewn hair and spearlike beard. The reverse is interesting for its comparative simplicity: an ideal composition is achieved with the grape cluster and the peripheral decoration of the vine, leaves and ethnic. By representing the grapes in full, yet the grape leaves only in outline, the engraver has added an arresting twist to his design.