Sale: Nomos 9, Lot: 59. Estimate CHF30000.  Closing Date: Monday, 20 October 2014.  Sold For CHF24000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Syracuse. c. 460/455 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 26mm, 17.22 g 12). Charioteer driving quadriga walking to right, holding goad in his right hand and the reins in both; above, Nike flying right to crown the horses; in exergue, ketos to right. Rev. Σ-Υ-RΑΚΟΣΙΟΝ Diademed head of Arethusa to right, wearing pendant earring and pearl necklace; around, four dolphins swimming right. Boehringer 469 (V252/R338). Randazzo 532 (this coin). A superb, beautifully struck coin of outstanding quality. A few very minor marks and some waves of Arethusa’s hair struck flat, otherwise, good extremely fine, and very rare thus.

From the Escalade Collection, Switzerland, ex Numismatica Genevensis 5, 2 December 2008, 41, Leu 72, 12 May 1998, 100, Bowers & Ruddy, Masterpieces of Ancient Coinage, n.d. (1981), 8 and from the Randazzo Hoard of 1980.

This spectacular coin bears a large head of Arethusa that has lost most traces of the archaic formality that characterized the earlier depictions of Arethusa on Syracusan coinage. Her eye is close to being in profile and her face has a distinct character, albeit not an easy one. This piece was one of the latest to enter the Randazzo Hoard, which C. Arnold-Biucchi dated to c. 450, and it is doubtless the finest example of this rare type known.