Demareteion Tetradrachm

CNG 94, Lot: 115. Estimate $3000. Sold for $3750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Syracuse. Hieron I. 478-466 BC. AR Tetradrachm (26mm, 16.80 g, 1h). ‘Demareteion’ issue. Struck circa 470-466 BC. Charioteer, holding kentron in right hand and reins in both, driving slow quadriga right; above, Nike flying right, crowning horses with wreath held in both hands; in exergue, lion advancing right / Head of Arethusa right, wearing laurel wreath, hoop earring with single pendant, and pearl necklace, enclosed within linear circle; ΣV-RAK-OΣI-ON and four dolphins swimming clockwise around. Sult –; Boehringer Series XIIe, 389 (V198/R269); HGC 2, 1308; Jameson 754 (same dies); Leu 45, lot 54 (same dies). Near VF, lightly toned, some roughness, areas of weak strike, a few marks. An important rarity.

The story of the Demareteion coinage has its source in a passage in Diodorus (XI 26.3), that relates to the events following the defeat of the Carthaginians by the Syracusans after the battle of Himera in 479 BC. In the wake of their defeat, the Carthaginians expected harsh treatment by their foes, but Gelon, tyrant of Syracuse, imposed quite favorable terms upon them, supposedly at the behest of his wife, Demarete. In response, the Carthaginians are said to have presented Demarete with a crown of gold valued (or weighing) at a hundred talents, and from this gift was struck a coin, called the Demareteion, that weighed ten drachms on the Attic standard. The identification of the coin in question was one of the great mysteries of numismatics, due to the apparent contradictions in the story: the crown was said to be of gold, but the weight of the coin struck from it was given in Attic drachms, which implied a silver, not gold, coin. We know the metal of the coin must have been silver, as Syracuse apparently had no gold until many years after the event. Among the silver coinage, however, there was a suitable candidate that was known to have been struck relative to the time frame of the battle of Himera, the dekadrachms of Quadriga/Arethusa type. The appearance of these impressive coins was unprecedented at the time, and their style of such superior quality, that it is certain that they commemorated a particular, special event. Thus, these dekadrachms came to be known as the 'Demareteion' coinage, and their engraver labelled the 'Demareteion Master.' These dekadrachms were accompanied by a series of tetradrachms that featured the exact same iconography and style, and are regarded as masterpieces themselves, albeit on a smaller scale.