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SICILY, Syracuse. Dionysios I. 405-367 BC. AR Dekadrachm (35mm, 42.97 g, 8h). Reverse die signed by Euainetos. Struck circa 405-390 BC. Charioteer, wearing long chiton, holding kentron in extended right hand and reins in left, driving fast quadriga left; above, Nike, wearing long chiton, flying right, crowning charioteer with laurel wreath held in her extended hands; below heavy exergual line, [military harness], shield, greaves, cuirass, and crested Attic helmet, all connected by a horizontal spear; [AΘΛA below] / Head of Arethousa left, wearing wreath of grain ears, triple-pendant earring, and pearl necklace; ΣΥ-ΡΑ-Κ-ΟΣ-ΙΩΝ above, Δ below chin, four swimming dolphins around, [EY-AINE along lower edge]. Gallatin dies R.IX/D.II; Scavino 33 (D9/R18a); HGC 2, 1299; SNG Lloyd 1413 (same dies); Dewing 898–900 (same dies); Basel 481 (same dies); BMC 173 (same dies); Boston MFA 425 (same dies); Hunterian 53 (same dies); Rizzo pl. LIV, 5 and pl. LVI, 5 (same dies). Toned, cleaning scratches, some smoothing. VF.
Ex Stack’s Bowers and Ponterio (9 January 2015), lot 31, purchased from Elias Padros, circa 1977.
Dionysios assumed power in 405 BC and immediately set out to make Syracuse the greatest and most heavily fortified city in all Sicily. He was defending against the renewed imperialistic expansion of Carthage. Three times he defeated the Carthaginians, bringing further prestige and wealth to Syracuse. During his reign, the Syracusan navy became the most powerful in the Mediterranean, allowing Syracuse to expand her territorial control over much of southern Italy.
Dionysios reintroduced the large and ostentatious silver dekadrachms, a denomination that had not been used in Syracuse since the issue of the Demareteion decades earlier. Dionysios entrusted two of the greatest local numismatic artists, Kimon and Euainetos, to design these impressive pieces. The regard for these coins in modern times is reflected by the fact that they are considered a must for any first rank collection of Greek coins.
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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