335, Lot: 87. Estimate $300. Sold for $1800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Syracuse. Dionysios I. 405-367 BC. Æ Drachm (28mm, 28.10 g, 12h). Head of Athena left, wearing necklace and Corinthian helmet; dolphin downwards behind / Hippocamp left, waves below. CNS 33; HGC 2, 1435. VF, grerareen patina, smoothed, details enhanced. Rare.

The beginning of the fourth century BC saw the end of Syracuse’s great prosperity and the continuation of the mighty struggle between the tyrant Dionysius I and the Carthaginians for western Sicily. The production of Syracuse’s magnificent silver coinage ended abruptly and was replaced by several series of splendid bronze coinage of which this coin, according to Calciati, vol. II, p. 75, is a trial or proof of a series rather than a definitive issue.