Watch List notes:

The M.L. Collection of Coins of Magna Graecia and Sicily
Naxos

Tetradrachm, circa 415, AR 17.07 g. Bearded head of Dionysus r., hair bound with stephane adorned with ivy-wreath. Rev. Bearded, naked Silenus, with pointed ears, ruffled hair and long tail, squatting on rock, facing; r. leg raised and l. folded to the side. He turns l. towards cantharus in his r. hand, while holding thyrsos in his l. In l. field, ivy plant creeps upward, behind which his long tail is visible; to r., NAΞION. Rizzo pl. XXXVIII, 19 (these dies). SNG Copenhagen 493 (these dies). SNG Lockett 843 (these dies). AMB 386 (this obverse die). Cahn 103.
Very rare. An appealing specimen of this desirable issue of full Classical style. Struck
in high relief and with a lovely light iridescent tone, about extremely fine
Ex Triton sale I, 1997, 283.At the time around 415 BC from which this coin dates (the years of the Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta: 431-404 B.C.), Naxos, the oldest Greek settlement in Sicily, founded in 736 B.C. by Chalcidians led by Tucles on the oriental coast of the island, joined the league of the island's Ionian cities against Syracuse and remained true to Athens throughout the conflict, until the defeat of Assinaro (413 B.C.). Although the types represented (head of Dionysus on the obverse and squatting Silenus on the reverse) are the same as those on earlier issues (cf. no. 98), their treatment is quite different. The profile of the god appears more realistic and human, even somewhat subdued. Silenus' left arm, no longer tensed to support his body, rests more easily on his left leg and holds a long thyrsus. The presence of an ivy plant on the left side of the coin further emphasises the Dionysian motif, emerging as it does from a rough boulder on which Silenus leans and drapes his short equine tail.