Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 100. Estimate $4000.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $5000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Syracuse. Agathokles. 317-289 BC. AV Dekadrachm - 50 Litrae (4.27 gm). Struck circa 317-310 BC. Laureate head of Apollo left; S behind / SURA-K-OSIWN, charioteer driving biga right, holding kentron in right hand, reins in left; triskeles below horses. Bérend, l'or pl. 9, 1 var. (triskeles counterclockwise); SNG ANS 551; SNG Lloyd -; SNG Copenhagen 746 var. (no S on obverse); Jameson -; Gulbenkian 327 (same obverse die); Pozzi 1313 var. (grain ear behind head); Weber -; McClean 2814 var. (same; same reverse die). Lustrous FDC. [See color enlargement on plate 2] ($4000)

Ex Triton I (2-3 December 1997), lot 347.

There can be little doubt that the prototype for Agathokles’ issue of gold dekadrachms is the prolific gold stater introduced by the Macedonian king Philip II and continued by his successors for at least two decades after his death, down to approximately when Agathokles came to power in Syracuse. Agathokles no doubt chose Philip’s design because it was familiar to Greek mercenaries, which he often had cause to recruit. On some of Agathokles’ coins (see lot 101 below) the portrait of Apollo is highly personalized and is remniscent of the posthumous issues of the Philip II type on which the Apollo portrait has the features of Alexander the Great.