Description
Sicily. Selinos. Tetradrachm ca. 470-450 BC. Silver 17.36 g.; 30 mm.
Obverse: Artemis holding the reins of a biga going left, next to her, Apollo preparing to shoot an arrow. Obverse caption: ΣΕΛΙИΟ-И-ΤΙ-ΟΝ [anticlockwise and Σ retrograde] //
Reverse: Selinos, nude, standing left, holding a laurel branch vertically in his left hand and a phial in his right hand above an altar adorned with a laurel branch. Rooster facing left in front of the altar; in the right field, selinon leaf (variety of ache or celery) above a bull standing left on a pedestal. Reverse caption: Σ-ΕΛΙΝ-ΟΣ
HGC: 2-1220.
Tetradrachm perfectly centered on the obverse and showing most of the iconography on the reverse. Our example features a rare reverse die seen in less than a dozen sales.
Very fine VF 30-35
Provenance Details
Ex Numismatik Lanz München, Auction 125, 28 November 2005, lot 103.
Faune d'Argent Collection.
Comment
Our coin features an iconography intimately linked to religion, and is part of a period in which relations between Selinunte and Carthage were evolving. A rare type, rarely seen at auction, our coin is therefore of great iconographic and numismatic interest!
Payment
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