Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 57. Estimate $2500.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $4000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Leontini. Circa 476-468 BC. AR Didrachm (8.61 gm). From the school of the Demareteion Master. Nude rider on horseback right / LE-O-N-TI-NO-N, head of roaring lion right, four barley grains around. Boehringer, Leontini 13 (same obverse die); SNG ANS 207 (same dies); SNG Lloyd 1044 (same obverse die); SNG Copenhagen 338; Rizzo pl. XXII, 11 (same obverse die); Jameson 623 (same dies). Beautifully toned, good VF. [See color enlargement on plate 5] ($2500)

Ex Münzen und Medaillen X (22-23 June 1951), lot 200; Münzhandlung Basel IV (1 October 1935), lot 458.

One of the earliest of the recognized masters of Sicilian engraving, the unknown artist who created the Demareteion dekadrachm of Syracuse was also responsible for several coins struck for the neighboring city of Leontini. R. Ross Holloway discusses the relationship of the Leontini tetradrachms with the masterworks of the "Demareteion Master" at Syracuse in "Damarete's Lion", ANSMN XI, pp. 1-11. He regards them as works of the same hand, while Carmen Arnold-Biucchi in her work on the Randazzo Hoard sees influence from, but not the work of, the master, with the Leontini piece being a few years later and in a more developed realistic style. The same can be said for this didrachm. The rider has a much more fluid, active stance compared to earlier Leontini pieces and even compared to other didrachms of the same issue. In addition, the fine linear border on the reverse has parallels with the dekadrachm and other dies produced by the Master. This didrachm should be added to the corpus of the works of "Demareteion" and his followers.