162, Lot: 28. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Syracuse. Second Democracy. 466-405 BC. AR Tetradrachm (24mm, 17.19 g). Obverse and reverse die signed by Eumenos. Charioteer driving galloping quadriga left, holding kentron in right hand, reins in both; Nike flying above crowning charioteer, two dolphins in exergue; signature EV below horses / Head of Arethusa left, surrounded by four dolphins swimming; signature EV below bust. Tudeer 31 (V11/R21); SNG ANS 262. Good Fine, well centered, good metal, just lots of wear.

During the final decades of the 5th century the art of the die-engraver in Sicily had evolved to such a level that the individual artists began signing their work on the dies. This brought them great celebrity and doubtless commensurate income and the phenomenon was by no means confined to Syracuse itself. Never before, and probably never since, have die-engravers achieved such a high level of fame and the quality and inspiration of their work briefly raised coinage truly to the level of fine art. Unfortunately, these exciting developments were cut short by the catastrophic political events of the closing decade of the 5th century, when the Carthaginian invasion and the reestablishment of tyranny at Syracuse destroyed forever the environment in which this remarkable, but fragile, artistic movement had occurred. This handsome pedigreed piece is signed by the engraver Eumenos (or Eumenes) on both obverse and reverse. Eumenos' work was especially noted for the introduction of high action in the horses drawing the racing chariot, a change which was to be carried much further by other masters of this brief but brilliant period of numismatic art. Together with the engraver Sosion, Eumenos was in the vanguard of the artistic movement which transformed the Syracusan coinage in the late 5th century.