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Lansky Auction 3 5 Jan 2021
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Sicily. Leontinoi. 450-440 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.27g, 1h). SNG ANS 230; Gillet 441. Lightly toned. Perfectly centered and struck. Lovely early classical style. Choice extremely fine. From the B.H. collection; Gorny & Mosch 2001 (112) lot 4027
This outstanding coin of Leontinoi was produced in a period of relative peace between the overthrow of the Deinomenid dynasty (465 BC) and the assumption of Dionysios (405 BC). The obverse features a head of Apollo, so beautiful and delicate that it approaches the feminine. The reverse type features a dramatic lion head as a punning badge of the city (the Greek word for lion was leon...) and the four barleycorns that surround the head allude to the fertility of the Leontinoi's territory; their arrangement reflects a Syracusan influence, whose contemporary coins depict the head of Aretusa surrounded by four dolphins.
This outstanding coin of Leontinoi was produced in a period of relative peace between the overthrow of the Deinomenid dynasty (465 BC) and the assumption of Dionysios (405 BC). The obverse features a head of Apollo, so beautiful and delicate that it approaches the feminine. The reverse type features a dramatic lion head as a punning badge of the city (the Greek word for lion was leon...) and the four barleycorns that surround the head allude to the fertility of the Leontinoi's territory; their arrangement reflects a Syracusan influence, whose contemporary coins depict the head of Aretusa surrounded by four dolphins.