An Exquisite Akragas Tetradrachm With Excellent Detail
SICILY, Akragas. Circa 465/0–445/0 BC. AR Tetradrachm (24.5mm, 17.24 g, 6h). Sea eagle standing left; AKRAC-ANTOΣ (partially retrograde) around / Crab within shallow incuse circle. Westermark,
Coinage, Period II, Group III, 372 (O12/R50); HGC 2, 77; BMC 28 (same dies); Boston MFA 222 = Warren 189 (same dies). A few minor die breaks, small flan flaw on obverse. Superb EF. Well centered and struck on a broad flan. Excellent detail.
Akragas, Roman Agrigentum, was situated close to the southern coastline of Sicily midway between Gela and Selinos. Founded by colonists from Gela circa 580 BC, Akragas grew to become the second most important city on the island after Syracuse, deriving much of its wealth from the export of agricultural produce to Carthage, which lay about 200 miles to the west. Its coinage commenced in the closing years of the 6th century and principally consisted of silver didrachms down to about 440 BC, after which the tetradrachm became the principal denomination. The first series of tetradrachms, though, coincided with the last period of didrachms, with all featuring the same types that had persisted since the beginning of the city's coinage: on the obverse, an eagle, sacred to Olympian Zeus, to whom the city dedicated an immense temple, and a reverse with an overhead view of a crab, harvested from the sea as a delicacy in the region. After 440 BC, as with many of the coinages of the great Sicilian cities, the designs became more complex and artistic, with one or two eagles shown devouring a hare on the obverse, and a galloping quadriga ultimately replacing the crab on the reverse. In the final decade of the 5th century, as the artistry of it coinage reached its zenith, Akragas suffered the same fate as many of the other Greek cities of Sicily when it was stormed and sacked by the invading Carthaginians (406 BC). Though its coinage continued thereafter, the scale and beauty of its 5th century series were never attained again.
