SICILY. Gela. Circa 480/75-475/70 B.C. AR tetradrachm. 16.76 gm. 25 mm. Charioteer driving biga right, holding kentron and reins; above, Nike flying right, crowning horses / Forepart of man-headed bull right; [Γ]ΕΛΑ around. Jenkins 146 (O39/R91). HGC 2, 338. Very Fine; lightly toned.

Ex Stacks Coin Galleries Mail Bid Sale (10 November 1987) lot 53 (tag included).

Gela, sitting on the southern coast of Sicily, was founded in 688 B.C. by Cretans and Rhodians and over the next two centuries became the most influential state on the island. Tetradrachms were first struck there circa 480/75 B.C., making this example one of the earliest issued. They remained the principal denomination down to the destruction of the city by Carthaginian invaders in 405 B.C. The obverse shows a racing chariot, borrowed from the Syracusan coinage, and the reverse is the famous forepart of a man-headed bull based on the river-god Acheloös, a personification of the river Gela which runs by the city.