Heritage World Coin Auctions
NYINC Signature Sale 3037 Sess. 2-4 5 January 2015
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SICILY. Syracuse. Deinomenid Tyranny (ca. 485-466 BC). AR tetradrachm (28mm, 17.33 gm, 3h). Time of Hieron I, ca. 470-466 BC. Charioteer driving walking quadriga right, holding kentron and reins; Nike above, flying right, crowning horses, ketos to right in exergue / ΣVRΑ-ΚΟΣΙ-ΟΝ, head of Arethusa right, wearing earring and necklace, hair tied with pearl headband, four dolphins around. Boehringer 412 (V212/R291). SNG ANS 142. HGC 2, 1309. Rare. Lovely late Archaic style! Deeply struck in good metal on an exceptionally broad flan. NGC XF★ 5/5 - 5/5. From The California Collection. Ex ROMA Numismatics VI (29 September 2013), lot 443. Arethusa was a beautiful Nereid and an attendant of Artemis, the huntress. According to various myths, she decided to bathe in a river in Arcadia, whereupon the river god Alpheus became smitten and attempted to ravish her. Wishing to preserve her chastity, she fled across Greece and Italy before Alpheus trapped her on the islet of Ortygeia on Sicily. Hearing her prayers for deliverance, Artemis transformed her into a clear spring, around which the famed city of Syracuse grew. Arethusa, shown as a young girl surrounded by frolicking dolphins, became the symbol of Syracuse and appeared on its coins from the early fifth century BC. This remarkable specimen shows stylistic similarities to the so-called Demareteion decadrachm, issued in the same time frame toward the end of the Deinomenid Tyranny.
Estimate: 12000-16000 USD
SICILY. Syracuse. Deinomenid Tyranny (ca. 485-466 BC). AR tetradrachm (28mm, 17.33 gm, 3h). Time of Hieron I, ca. 470-466 BC. Charioteer driving walking quadriga right, holding kentron and reins; Nike above, flying right, crowning horses, ketos to right in exergue / ΣVRΑ-ΚΟΣΙ-ΟΝ, head of Arethusa right, wearing earring and necklace, hair tied with pearl headband, four dolphins around. Boehringer 412 (V212/R291). SNG ANS 142. HGC 2, 1309. Rare. Lovely late Archaic style! Deeply struck in good metal on an exceptionally broad flan. NGC XF★ 5/5 - 5/5. From The California Collection. Ex ROMA Numismatics VI (29 September 2013), lot 443. Arethusa was a beautiful Nereid and an attendant of Artemis, the huntress. According to various myths, she decided to bathe in a river in Arcadia, whereupon the river god Alpheus became smitten and attempted to ravish her. Wishing to preserve her chastity, she fled across Greece and Italy before Alpheus trapped her on the islet of Ortygeia on Sicily. Hearing her prayers for deliverance, Artemis transformed her into a clear spring, around which the famed city of Syracuse grew. Arethusa, shown as a young girl surrounded by frolicking dolphins, became the symbol of Syracuse and appeared on its coins from the early fifth century BC. This remarkable specimen shows stylistic similarities to the so-called Demareteion decadrachm, issued in the same time frame toward the end of the Deinomenid Tyranny.
Estimate: 12000-16000 USD