Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 42. Estimate $2500.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $2800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Akragas. Circa 410-406 BC. AV Diobol (1.34 gm). Silanos, magistrate. AKPA, eagle standing left on rock outcrop, snake clasped in its talons; •• on rocks / Crab; SILA/NOS (retrograde) in two lines below. SNG ANS 999 (same dies); SNG Copenhagen 52; SNG Lloyd 815; Jameson 507 (same dies); cf. Rizzo pl. 3, 8; Gulbenkian 171; Pozzi 919; Weber 1195; Boston MFA 237. EF. Rare. [See color enlargement on plate 2] ($2500)

From the James A. Ferrendelli Collection. Ex Münzen und Medaillen 79 (28 March-1 April 1994), lot 98.

The magistrate’s signature, Silanos, is found on tetradrachms (SNG ANS 1000) as well as gold diobols with marks of value. As it does so often, gold indicates anticipation of an emergency, and thus this last issue of the city can be dated to the period before its capitulation to the Carthaginians in 406 BC (see C. Boehringer, "Die Finanzpolitik und Münzprägung des Dionysios von Syrakus" in Essays Thompson, pg. 15-16). This event led directly to the rise to power of the tyrant Dionysios the Elder, the extension of the Syracusan domination over most of Sicily, and the introduction of gold issues for the first time in Kamarina, Gela, and Stiela.