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SICILY, Himera. Circa 483/2-472/1 BC. AR Didrachm (19mm, 8.60 g, 2h). Cock standing left / Crab within shallow incuse circle. Westermark, Himera, Group II, 69–80 (O12/R– [unlisted rev. die]); HGC 2, 438. Toned, scratches, edge marks. VF.
Ex Sheikh Saud Al-Thani [‘Man in Love with Art’] Collection (Part II, Numismatica Ars Classica 123, 9 May 2021), lot 123; Künker 124 (16 March 2007), lot 7849.
Founded circa 649 BC by settlers from Zankle, Himera was the only Greek colony on the north coast of the island. On evidence of its late 6th century coinage it would appear to have enjoyed a high degree of prosperity at this time, despite the relative isolation of its position. As at the other two Chalkidian colonies (Naxos and Zankle), the standard denomination of Himera's archaic coinage was the drachm of about 5.73 grams, being one-third of the Euboeic stater of 17.2 grams. It is generally assumed that the cock was the civic 'badge' of Himera, having been adopted in honor of the Euboian city of Karystos, perhaps the original home of many of the first colonists. In 483 BC, Himera was captured by Theron, tyrant of Akragas, and thereafter the crab of Akragas appeared as the reverse type on the coinage of Himera.
The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 132 lots will be determined at the live online sale that will be held on 18-19 May 2026.
CNG Feature Auction 132 – Session One – Lot 1-318 will be held Monday morning, 18 May 2026 beginning at 9:00 AM ET.
Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.
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We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.
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