BRUTTIUM. Rhegion. Circa 415/0-387 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 25 mm, 16.66 g, 6 h), reverse die signed by Kratesippos. Facing head of a lion. Rev. ΡHΓINOΣ Laureate head of Apollo to right; behind, olive sprig; before, in small letters, KPATE/OΠΠIΣ. BMC 26 (same dies). Gillet 315 (this coin). Herzfelder 64d (this coin, D36b/R53). HN Italy 2494. Jameson 460 (same dies). Beautifully toned and with a fine pedigree. Somewhat rough and with minor die breaks on the obverse, otherwise, good very fine.

Hemmed in between the Brettian mountains and the Strait of Messina, Rhegion was founded in the 8th century BC by Chalcidian and Zanklian settlers at the southwestern tip of Italy. The city had scarce fertile hinterland and was accordingly maritime-oriented. Together with its sister city Zankle-Messina, it controlled the strategically crucial Strait of Messina, through which the majority of the maritime trade between the northwestern and eastern Mediterranean was conducted.

Its location on the Italian mainland afforded it some protection from the regularly erupting Carthaginian-Greek wars in Sicily, but Rhegion came into conflict with the Syracusan tyrant Dionysios at the beginning of the 4th century BC. An initial siege in 396 BC was repelled, but a lost naval battle in 389 led to a renewed siege of the city, which was finally conquered and destroyed in 387 BC. This also marked the end of the wonderful classical coinage of the city, which depicted the city's emblem, the frontal lion's head, on its magnificent tetradrachms. On the reverse of this particular example, the beautiful image of Apollo is accompanied by the signature of the master engraver Kratesippos