Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 52. Estimate $6000.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $5250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Kamarina. Circa 405 BC. AV Diobol (1.03 gm). Head of Athena right, wearing Attic helmet decorated with a hippocamp / KA, olive sprig with two berries. Westermark & Jenkins 206.10 (pl. 36 enlargement) = Basel 321 = Jameson 528 (this coin); SNG ANS 1209 (same dies); SNG Lloyd 905 (Catana; same dies); SNG Copenhagen -; Rizzo pl. 7, 17; Gulbenkian -; Pozzi -; Weber 1248 (same dies). Choice VF. Rare. [See color enlargement on plate 2] ($6000)

From the James A. Ferrendelli Collection. Ex Sammlung Ludwig (Numismatica Ars Classica 13, 8 October 1998), lot 321; Jameson Collection, 528; Löbbecke Collection (J. Hirsch 15, 28 May 1906), lot 957; "Late Collector" (Sotheby, 23 May 1900), lot 92.

For a discussion of the dating of this issue, see C. Boehringer, "Die Finanzpolitik und Münzprägung des Dionysios von Syrakus" in Essays Thompson, pp. 15-17.

By 405 BC, the Carthaginian invasion of Sicily had reached the territory of Gela and Kamarina, and there was an urgent need for mercenaries to relieve the siege of Gelas and prepare the defense of Kamarina. The gold diobols were struck to pay these troops, who in the end were not used for their intended purpose, as the citizens of both cities were evacuated by Dionysios and brought to Syracuse.