CNG 100, Lot: 11. Estimate $2000. Sold for $3750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Syracuse. Dionysios I. 405-367 BC. AV 20 Litrai – Tetradrachm (11mm, 1.15 g, 8h). Struck circa 405-400 BC. Head of Herakles left, wearing lion skin; ΣYP-A to left / Quadripartite incuse square, Σ-Y-P-A in quarters; in deeper incuse circle in center, small female head (Arethousa?) left, wearing necklace. Bérend pl. XI, 3; Boehringer, Münzprägungen, pl. I, 6; HGC 2, 1289; SNG ANS 351; SNG Lloyd –; Dewing 865; Pozzi 1263; Rizzo pl. XLVIII, 9. EF, toned, a little die wear.

From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams, purchased from Classical Numismatic Group, November 1996.

The reverse of this gold coinage is a revival of the reverses used on the earliest tetradrachms of Syracuse (cf. Boehringer Group I). G.K. Jenkins suggested that this revival indicated an equivalence between this gold denomination and a silver tetradrachm (see Jenkins, Gela, p. 99).