Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 685. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $4000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Akragas. Circa 410-406 BC. AV Diobol (1.32 g, 11h). Silanos, magistrate. [AKP]A, eagle standing left on rock outcrop, snake clasped in its talons; •• on rocks / Crab; SILA/NOS (retrograde) in two lines below. SNG ANS 998 (same dies); SNG Copenhagen 52; cf. Rizzo pl. 3, 8; SNG Lockett 714 (same dies); Gulbenkian 171 (same dies); Pozzi 385 (same obv. die). EF. Rare. ($3000)

Ex Münzen und Medaillen Deutschland 9 (4 October 2001), lot 89.

The magistrate’s name, 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," Essays Thompson, pg. 15-16).