Sale: Nomos 6, Lot: 12. Estimate CHF12500.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 May 2012.  Sold For CHF15000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Eryx. Circa 412-400 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 24mm, 17.01 g 11). Charioteer, holding a kentron in his right hand and the reins of two horses in each hand, driving quadriga galloping to the right; above, Nike flying left to crown the charioteer; in exergue, grain ear. Rev. ΕΡΥ[ΚΙΝΟΝ] Aphrodite seated left on stool, holding a dove in her right hand and dangling her left next to the stool; before her on the left, Eros standing right, raising his right hand. Basel 278 = Jameson 569 (this coin). Kraay / Hirmer 192. Rizzo pl. LXIV, 12-13 (same dies). Very rare. Toned. Reverse slightly weakly struck and obverse very slightly off center, otherwise, good very fine.

From the collections of W. N. Rudman, Triton V, 15 January 2002, 1164 and A. Moretti, Numismatica Ars Classica 13, 8 October 1998, 278, ex Hess-Leu (3), 27 March 1956, 90, and from the collections of R. Jameson and Sir Arthur Evans.

Eryx was a city of the Elymians, a native Sicilian tribal group that was supposedly of Trojan origin. It was founded by Eryx, a hero who was the son of Aphrodite and Butes, one of the Argonauts. It was important during the 5th century, and was much fought over between the Greeks and Carthaginians in the 4th and 3rd. Except for its great temple of Aphrodite, which remained of importance until at least the time of Tiberius, the town fell into ruin by the later 3rd century BC.