★ Sybaris reusing dies from its colony, Laos, after its re-founding ★

LUCANIA. Sybaris III. 453-448 BC. Triobol (Silver, 11 mm, 1.14 g, 6 h). MV ( retrograde ) Man-faced bull standing left, his head turned back to right. Rev. MV ( retrograde ) Acorn. HGC 1, 1558. HN III 2282 var. H. R. Sternberg, "Die Silberprägung von Laos ca. 510-440 v. Chr.," Proceedings of the 8th International Congress of Numismatics New York - Washington 1973, cf. p. 158, 20 ( same obverse die, but with a reverse die inscribed AΛ instead of MV ), and p. 157, 16 ( same dies, but with the legend ΛA on both sides ). New York Sale IV, 2002, 24 ( same dies ). Extremely rare, the second example known. About very fine.

From the "Collection sans Pareille" of Ancient Greek Fractions, acquired in 1983 or 1984.

Sybaris was destroyed by Kroton in 510 BC, and many of the exiled inhabitants found their way to Laos, a colony of Sybaris. When Sybaris was re-founded circa 453, they apparently used some dies from Laos when striking their new coinage, perhaps brought by some of the expellees or, more likely, their descendants. Although not visible on our coin, since it was erased by recutting, it is struck from an obverse die with the Laos ethnic - ΛA or ΛAI - in the left field. Thus, our coin is unequivocally tied to Sybaris' re-founding in 453. Interestingly, Sternberg did not know of any examples of this type with a re-engraved reverse die, but our coin shares the same dies as lot 24 of New York Sale IV in 2002, which in turn shares its reverse die with Sternberg 16, but that coin still bears the un-recut ethic for Laos - ΛAI - instead of being recut with the ethnic for Sybaris - MV - as here.