Rare Katane Tetradrachm

170, Lot: 14. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Katane. Circa 450-405 BC. AR Tetradrachm (25mm, 17.00 g). Charioteer driving walking quadriga right, holding long kentron in right hand, reins in left; Nike flying above placing a wreath on horses / Laureate head of Apollo right. SNG ANS 1249 (same dies); Gulbenkian 182 (same dies). Good VF, obverse and reverse die breaks, irregular flan.

The Sicilian city of Katane (modern Catania) was a Chalkidian colony founded from Naxos in 729 BC. It was located midway along the eastern coast of the island at the southern extremity of the slopes of Mount Aetna. Its fertile territory was coveted by neighboring Syracuse and in 476 BC the Syracusan tyrant Hieron I removed the population of Katane to the inland city of Leontini. Katane was now given the name of Aetna and re-peopled with Syracusan citizens and a group of Dorian mercenaries. On the fall of the Sicilian tyrannies in the late 460's the alien population was expelled and the former inhabitants of Katane returned from exile in Leontini to reclaim their city, which now reverted to its original name. It seems unlikely that any coinage was produced at Katane prior to the events of 476 BC so any issues bearing the name of the Katanians must postdate the restoration of the original population in 461.