SICILY. Akragas. Circa 510-495 BC. Didrachm (Silver, 24 mm, 8.27 g, 3 h). AKRAC-ANTOΣ Eagle standing left with closed wings. Rev. Crab within shallow circular incuse. HGC 2, 87. SNG Ashmolean 1651 (same reverse die). SNG Lloyd 786 (same dies). Westermark Period I, Group I, 14.11 (this coin, O8/R8). Very well struck and beautifully toned, and with an excellent pedigree. Minor flan faults and with a few small spots of horn silver, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.

The Swiss engineer Walter Niggeler (1878–1964), a chief engineer at Brown, Boveri & Cie. and an avid mountaineer, discovered a new passion in the 1920s when he was shown a Dupondius of Livia from a local hoard. This encounter sparked a lifelong fascination with coin collecting. Over the following decades, he assembled one of the most important private collections of Greek, Roman, Swiss, and Italian coins of the 20th century. A self-taught expert in ancient numismatics, Niggeler was a familiar figure at the great auction houses of his time. As his German Wikipedia entry wryly notes, he led 'ein exzentrisches Leben als Junggeselle in einer völlig mit Kunstschätzen und Münzkästen überfüllten Wohnung' (i.e. 'led an eccentric life as a bachelor in an apartment completely filled with art treasures and coin cases.'). After his death, his remarkable collection was dispersed across four joint auctions held by Bank Leu and Münzen & Medaillen AG between 1965 and 1967