Ex Trampitsch Collection

Triton XIX, Lot: 59. Estimate $50000. Sold for $30000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Syracuse. Dionysios I. 405-367 BC. AR Dekadrachm (34mm, 43.12 g, 5h). Unsigned dies in the style of Euainetos. Struck circa 405-380/67. 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 / Head of Arethousa left, wearing wreath of grain ears, triple-pendant earring, and pearl necklace; scallop shell behind neck; four dolphins swimming around. Gallatin dies R.XIX/G.I; HGC 2, 1299; SNG ANS 372-3; du Chastel 129 (same rev. die); Nanteuil 359 (same rev. die); de Luynes 1246 (same rev. die); Warren 362 (same rev. die); Morton & Eden 59, lot 742 (same rev. die); Triton XII, 106 (same rev. die); Hess-Divo 309, lot 19 (same dies). Good VF, deeply toned with minor deposits underneath, just a touch of the usual die rust. Struck on a broad flan from a sharp obverse and reverse die.

From the Friend of a Scholar Collection. Ex Armand Trampitsch Collection (Vinchon, 13 November 1986), lot 104.

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 Demareteion issue 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.