Didrachm circa 465-440, AR 19 mm, 8.00 g. Lion standing r.; above, A. Rev. V-E-Λ-H Head of the nymph Hyele r.; all within incuse circle. C.M. Kraay, A mid-fifth century hoard from South Italy, SNR 66, 29, 1 and pl. 5, 1 (this coin). Wiliiams 71a (this coin). Historia Numorum Italy 1264. HGC 1, 1303. Very rare and in exceptional condition for the issue, undoubtedly among the finest specimens in private hands. A portrait of excellent style and a lovely old cabinet tone. Extremely fine Ex Leu 2, 1972, 46; Leu 48, 1989, 25; Leu 81, 2001, 29 and CNG 109, 2018, 33 sales. In c. 535 BC, a combined fleet of Carthaginian and Etruscan ships appeared off the coast of Corsica to evict the island’s Greek colonists, who had arrived from Phokaia in Ionia and founded the city of Alalia. Against all odds, the Greeks of Alalia defeated their Carthaginian and Etruscan enemies, but realized that they were too exposed to attack on the island. They therefore set out to find new places to settle. Some of the colonists sailed for Gaul, where they founded the city of Massalia, while others took ship for Magna Graecia in southern Italy, where they established the city of Velia in the region of Lucania. The new city, which was also known as Hyele or Elea, was named after the nearby spring, whose beautiful nymph, Hyele, is depicted on the reverse of this early didrachm. Hyele, whose name means ”glassy,” refers both to the crystal-clear water of her spring and to the quality of her singing. According to Greek mythology, she was one of the 3,000 daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, chosen at age 9 to serve in the choir of 60 nymphs that accompanied the goddess Artemis. Despite the importance of Hyele as the source of water and namesake of Velia, in the city’s extensive series of didrachms struck from the fifth to the early third century BC, she only appears on two emissions. The reverses of Velian didrachm otherwise regularly feature the helmeted head of Athena. The present coin is the earliest depiction of Hyele on a didrachm of Velia. An obverse type depicting a lion was standard for all didrachms struck at Velia, although the animal is shown in various attitudes, including on the prowl or devouring his prey. Here, the lion is shown at bay with his mouth wide open to give a ferocious roar. It is believed that the use of the lion, an animal not native to Italy in the fifth century BC, as an emblem of Velia reflects the eastern origin of the city’s colonists. Although they came from Phocaea in Ionia, a city best known for its use of a seal (phoke in Greek) as a canting badge, prolonged exposure to the Near Eastern iconography of the Persian Empire is thought to have led to the recognition of the lion as a symbol of power and authority. Thus, when the Phocaean colonists struck out to find new homes in the west, they brought this eastern symbol with them and used it on their coins. Interestingly, the lion appears not only on the coinage of Velia in Lucania, but also on that of its sister settlement, Massalia in Gaul. Please find here the video of the coin