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SICILY, Leontini. Circa 425-415 BC. AR Tetradrachm (23.5mm, 17.45 g, 1h). Laureate head of Apollo left / Head of roaring lion left; three barley grains and leaf around. Maltese Period IV, 138 (D34/R106); Boehringer, Münzgeschichte 55 (same dies); HGC 2, 671; SNG ANS 257 (same dies); Gillet 453 (same dies); Rizzo, pl. XXIV, 4 (same dies). Light iridescent tone, underlying luster. EF.
Ex Leu Numismatik AG Web Auction 28 (9 December 2023), lot 619; Nomisma 67 (13 April 2023), lot 5.
Leontini was founded in 729 BC by settlers from Naxos, the first Greek colony in Sicily, which itself had been established just a few years earlier. In the first decade of the 5th century the city was captured by the tyrant Hippocrates of Gela whose successor, Gelon, transferred his seat of government to Syracuse in 485. Thereafter, Leontini usually remained within the Syracusan sphere of influence, though its 5th century coinage was on a considerable scale attesting to the independent wealth of the community. A major political change took place in the late 460s — the expulsion of the tyrants and the restoration of democracy. This was reflected on the Leontine coinage by the introduction of new types featuring the head of Apollo on obverse and a lion’s head on reverse. Apollo was especially revered at Leontini, as he was at the mother city of Naxos where there was a famous sanctuary of Apollo Archegetes. The lion apparently represents a punning allusion to the city name. The surrounding barley-grains are indicative of the exceptional fertility of the Leontine territory and doubtless refer to the local worship of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture.
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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