SICILY, Syracuse. Second Democracy. 466-405 BC. AR Tetradrachm (25.5mm, 17.12 g, 3h). Obverse die signed by Phrygillos. Struck circa 415-409 BC. VF.

CNG Feature Auction 124
Lot: 59. Estimated: $ 5 000

Greek, Coin-in-Hand Video, Silver

Sold For $ 9 000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Go to Live

SICILY, Syracuse. Second Democracy. 466-405 BC. AR Tetradrachm (25.5mm, 17.12 g, 3h). Obverse die signed by Phrygillos. Struck circa 415-409 BC. Head of Arethousa left, hair in ampyx, inscribed Φ[PY], and sphendone, wearing single-pendant earring; ΣVPAKOΣION above, four dolphins around / Charioteer, holding flaming torch in right hand and reins in left, driving fast quadriga left; above, Nike flying right, crowning charioteer with open wreath held in her extended hands; in exergue, grain ear left. Fischer-Bossert, Coins 51 (O18/R30); Tudeer 51; HGC 2, 1335; SNG Fitzwilliam 1246 (same dies); BMC 160 (same dies); Rizzo pl. XLIII, 13 = de Luynes 1216 (same dies); Weber 1604 (same dies). Attractive light toning. VF.

The magnificent artistic flowering in Sicily in the 5th century BC has its origins in times of great strife. By the middle of the century, the situation began to resemble that of Renaissance Italy, where local princes engaged in continual warfare among themselves while employing the finest artists and craftsmen of their time. The result was the patronizing of some of the most talented coin engravers in history. In Syracuse, by the late 5th century BC these engravers were proudly signing their work, preserving the names of Kimon, Euainetos, Eumenos, Sosion, Herakleidas, Eukleidas and others for posterity. Their handiwork included several collaborative efforts, including coins with obverse and reverse dies signed by different artists.

The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 124 lots will be determined during the live online sale that will be held on 19-20 September 2023. This lot is in Session One, which will begin 19 September at 9 AM ET.

Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.

We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.