‡ Sicily, Akragas, hemidrachm, c. 420-410 BC, eagle with spread wings standing right on dead hare held in talons; behind, ear of corn, rev., Α-Κ-Ρ, crab; below, sea-monster left devouring fish, 2.17g, die axis 5.00 (Westermark 580.1, pl. 37, this piece; SNG Lloyd 825, same dies; SNG ANS 1010; Rizzo pl. 1, 19), finely toned, extremely fine and very rare Provenance: Charles Gillet collection; ‘Kunstfreund’, Bank Leu & Münzen und Medaillen, 28 May 1974, lot 79; S. Weintraub collection; Nelson Bunker Hunt collection, part II, Sotheby’s New York, 21 June 1990, lot 222; European Connoisseur collection (formed before 2002). Note: One of the latest significant Greek settlements in Sicily, Akragas was founded in Sican territory by colonists from Gela in c. 580 BC (Thuc. VI.4). Bounded by the rivers Akragas and Hypsas, it commanded a hill near the south-west coast and, as its ruins attest, became one of the most splendid and wealthiest cities in Sicily. Westermark has broken the coinage into three periods, the last of which coincides with the last brilliance of Sicilian coinage at the end of the fifth century. ‘The hemidrachms not only show an interesting renewal of the coin types, but they are also a new denomination in the monetary history of the mint,’ and were possibly the earliest appearance of the denomination in Western Sicily. (Westermark, 2018, p. 111-112). The hemidrachm issue with the sea-monster (ketos), as here, is unique to the silver coinage of Akragas; Westermark connects it to the Skylla tetradrachms, and places it as the last issue of the denomination (known from only 5 obverse and reverse dies).

Estimate: GBP 5000-7000