Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 95. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $6500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Syracuse. Hieron II. 274-216 BC. AV Drachm (4.22 gm, 12h). Struck circa 220-217 BC. Head of Persephone left with long flowing hair, head wreathed in grain ears; bucranium behind / IERWNOS, charioteer driving biga left, holding kentron in right hand, reins in left; monogram below horses. Carroccio 32 (D13/R20); SNG ANS 865 var. (E below chariot); SNG Copenhagen 818 var. (E on reverse); SNG München 1344. FDC, fully lustrous. ($5000)

Carroccio's redating of this series places it just prior to the outbreak of hostilities with the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War. He suggests, therefore, that the issue was most likely struck to finance the imminent military conflict, but he notes that it is also possible, based on the fact that the Syracusan economy was flowering just before the war, that it is an issue related to vigorous trade.