Dekadrachm from the Virzi Collection

294, Lot: 113. Estimate $7500. Sold for $19000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Syracuse. Dionysios I. 405-367 BC. AR Dekadrachm (32mm, 42.79 g, 9h). Unsigned dies in the style of Euainetos. Struck circa 405-400 BC. Charioteer, holding kentron in extended right hand and reins in left, driving fast quadriga left; above, Nike flying right, crowning charioteer with wreath held in her extended hands; below heavy exergual line, [military harness, shield], greaves, cuirass, and crested Attic helmet, all connected by a horizontal spear; [AΘΛA below] / Head of Arethusa left, wearing wreath of grain ears, triple-pendant earring, and pearl necklace; [ΣY-P-A-K-]OΣ[IΩN] above, pellet below chin, scallop shell behind neck, four swimming dolphins around. Gallatin dies R.XV/F.IXa (this coin listed as example 2); SNG ANS 374 corr. (same dies; coin is Gallatin example 1 not 2); SNG Lloyd –; Dewing 915–7 var. (same obv. die, no pellet). VF, toned, flan a little compact, light scratches under tone from old cleaning, slight roughness, a couple die breaks on reverse. Early die state before the usual die rust appears.

From the Robert and Julius Diez Collection. Ex Tom Virzi Collection (J. Hirsch XXXII, 14 November 1912), lot 327.

Dionysios assumed power in 405 BC and immediately set out to make Syracuse the greatest and best fortified city in all of Greece. He was defending against the renewed imperialistic expansion of Carthage. Three times he defeated the Carthaginians, bringing further prestige and wealth to Syracuse. During his reign, the Syracuse navy became the most powerful in the Mediterranean, allowing Syracuse to expand her territorial control over much of southern Italy.

Dionysios reintroduced the large and ostentatious silver dekadrachms, a denomination that had not been used in Syracuse since the issue of the Demareteion decades earlier. Dionysios entrusted two of the greatest local numismatic artists, Kimon and Euainetos, to design these impressive pieces. The regard for these coins in modern times is reflected by the fact that they are considered a must for any first rank collection of Greek coins.