Gemini, LLC
Auction X 13 January 2013
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Sicily. Siculo-Punic. c. 350 BC. Tetradrachm, 17.23g. (12h). Obv: Head of Persephone right, dolphins around. Rx: Horse prancing right, date palm behind. Jenkins, SNR 56 (1977), p. 45, no. 131 (5 specimens cited). Gulbenkian Coll. 366, McClean 3043 (both from the same dies). This reverse type is rare and highly desirable. Choice EF.
This series of Carthaginian coins struck for their campaigns on Sicily connects the Syracusan Arethusa head with the old badges of Carthage, the horse and the palm-tree (phoinix, a pun for Phoenicia). The Arethusa head may well have been interpreted as the head of Tanit, a Phoenician goddess. Our coin is struck from one of the few dies that combine the grace of the Syracusan nymph with the dark expression of the Phoenician deity who forced the Carthaginians to sacrifice their first-born children to her.
This series of Carthaginian coins struck for their campaigns on Sicily connects the Syracusan Arethusa head with the old badges of Carthage, the horse and the palm-tree (phoinix, a pun for Phoenicia). The Arethusa head may well have been interpreted as the head of Tanit, a Phoenician goddess. Our coin is struck from one of the few dies that combine the grace of the Syracusan nymph with the dark expression of the Phoenician deity who forced the Carthaginians to sacrifice their first-born children to her.