Heritage World Coin Auctions
CCE Signature Sale 3064 20-21 Apr 2018
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Ancients
SICILY. Syracuse. Hieron II (275-215 BC). AR 16 litrae (25mm, 13.42gm, 4h). NGC Choice AU 4/5 - 2/5. In the name of Queen Philistis, 218/7-214 BC. Diademed, veiled head of Queen Philistis left, torch behind / ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΑΣ ΦΙΛΙΣΤΙΔOΣ, Nike driving fast quadriga right, crescent above, grain ear under horse's forelegs. HGC 2, 1554. Burnett, SNR 62, pl. 3, 47. SNG ANS 882. Scattered die rust, small corrosion patch on reverse, otherwise crisply struck on a well-prepared flan and attractively toned.
The veiled head of Queen Philistis on this lovely coin points to a close relationship, if not an outright alliance, with the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, which employed very similar veiled female portraits on its famed gold coinage. Philistis was the daughter of a leading Syracusan citizen named Leptines. In about 275 BC she was taken to wife by Hieron, a soldier in the company of Pyrrhus of Epirus during his Sicilian campaigns. When Pyrrhus departed, Hieron stayed behind and, through his own evident merits and the influential marriage connection, was proclaimed king of Syracuse.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 1200-1600 USD
SICILY. Syracuse. Hieron II (275-215 BC). AR 16 litrae (25mm, 13.42gm, 4h). NGC Choice AU 4/5 - 2/5. In the name of Queen Philistis, 218/7-214 BC. Diademed, veiled head of Queen Philistis left, torch behind / ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΑΣ ΦΙΛΙΣΤΙΔOΣ, Nike driving fast quadriga right, crescent above, grain ear under horse's forelegs. HGC 2, 1554. Burnett, SNR 62, pl. 3, 47. SNG ANS 882. Scattered die rust, small corrosion patch on reverse, otherwise crisply struck on a well-prepared flan and attractively toned.
The veiled head of Queen Philistis on this lovely coin points to a close relationship, if not an outright alliance, with the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, which employed very similar veiled female portraits on its famed gold coinage. Philistis was the daughter of a leading Syracusan citizen named Leptines. In about 275 BC she was taken to wife by Hieron, a soldier in the company of Pyrrhus of Epirus during his Sicilian campaigns. When Pyrrhus departed, Hieron stayed behind and, through his own evident merits and the influential marriage connection, was proclaimed king of Syracuse.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 1200-1600 USD