Nomos 26

APULIA. Canusium. Circa 300-250 BC. Obol (Silver, 11 mm, 0.53 g, 6 h). Amphora with high handles and a tall base; on the lower left, rosette with eight rays; on the lower right, oinochoe. Rev. Κ - Α Lyre with three strings. HN III 657. SNG ANS 693. Rare. Very well-centered and attractively toned. About extremely fine.

From the "Collection sans Pareille" of Ancient Greek Fractions and that of Leo Mildenberg.

Canusium, modern Canosa di Puglia, was settled as early as Daunian times (6th-4th millennium BC) but had become a Greek city by the 6th century BC. It was famous for its Hellenistic pottery (thus the pots on this coin) and, later, during the reign of Antoninus Pius, was given an aqueduct by Herodes Atticus, the great Athenian philanthropist (he was, of course, also responsible for, among others, the Odeon and the Panathenaic Stadium at Athens, the stadium at Delphi and the Nymphaeum at Olympia).