Sale: CNG 72, Lot: 197. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 June 2006.  Sold For $2800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Syracuse. Agathokles. 317-289 BC. AV Stater - Double Dekadrachm (5.70 g, 11h). Struck circa 304-289 BC. Head of Athena right, wearing Corinthian helmet decorated with a griffin / Winged thunderbolt; T below. Bérend, l'or pl. 9, 6 (same dies); SNG ANS 702 var. (letter on rev.); Gulbenkian 339 (same dies). Good VF, toned, small mark on cheek. Very rare with T on reverse.

Ex Münzen und Medaillen XXVIII (19 June 1964), lot 82; Naville XVII (3 October 1934), lot 276.

This issue is from a short-lived coinage known from six obverse and seven reverse dies with numerous interlinkings, which suggest a specific occasion for its striking. Three alternatives proposed are the assumption of the royal title by Agathokles in 304 BC, the marriage of his daughter to Pyrrhos of Epeiros in 297, or renewed preparations for war against Carthage, the last of which seems the most plausible.