Extremely Rare Kamarina Drachm

CNG 85, Lot: 186. Estimate $5000. Sold for $4600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Kamarina. Circa 410-405 BC. AR Drachm (18mm, 4.09 g, 10h). Nike, wearing long chiton, wings spread, flying left, holding fillet in right hand, kerykeion in left / Head of the nymph Kamarina facing slightly left, hair in ampyx, wearing earring and pearl necklace. Westermark & Jenkins 167 (O1/R1); SNG ANS -; Rizzo pl. 7, 11 and pl. 8, 6 = Hirsch 328 (same dies); SNG Fitzwilliam 946 (same dies). VF, irregular edge and small edge chip at 8 o’clock on obverse. Extremely rare, only four examples noted by Westermark & Jenkins, all in public collections (Berlin, Brussels, Cambridge, and Milan).

There are two varieties of these drachms, differentiated by the appearance of dolphins flanking the nymph on the reverse of the second of two dies known for this issue. Westermark and Jenkins recorded a total of seven coins for the two series, four in the first, three in the second. All are in public collections, but a fourth coin for the second variety recently appeared at auction in the Lawrence R. Stack Collection (Stack’s, 14 January 2008), lot 2075, bringing a hammer of $18,000.