Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 70. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $9000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Syracuse. Agathokles. 317-289 BC. AV Stater - Double Dekadrachm (5.70 g, 11h). Struck circa 305/4-289 BC. Head of Athena right, wearing crested Corinthian helmet decorated with a griffin, single-pendant earring and necklace / AGAQOKLEOS BASILEOS, winged thunderbolt; monogram below. Bérend, l'or, pl. 9, 8 = SNG ANS 704; Carroccio, basileus, type 29; SNG Lloyd 1510; Jenkins pl. 15, C = SNG Ashmolean 2081 (same rev. die). Superb EF, lustrous.

From Collection C.G. Ex Classical Numismatic Group 45 (18 March 1998), lot 127.

This issue is from a short-lived coinage known from six obverse and seven reverse dies with numerous interlinkings, which suggest a specific occasion for its striking. Three alternatives proposed are the assumption of the royal title by Agathokles in 304 BC, the marriage of his daughter to Pyrrhos of Epeiros in 297, or renewed preparations for war against Carthage, the last of which seems the most plausible.