Archaios | Sicily KATANE Amenanos / Winged Thunderbolt ! | AE Tetras

Description: Archaios Numismatics __________________________________________ Description: Bronze Coin of Katane in Sicily, Circa 415 to 404 BC. Obverse: Bare head of a young river god Amenanos left with wonderful flowing hair as if underwater, AMENANOΣ before. Reverse: Winged Thunderbolt, or Fulmen, with Two pellets around top and K-A around bottom Mint: Katane, Sicily Size: 14 mm Weight: 1.82 g Ref: HGC 2,607; SNG Cop 677; [see CNG 226, Lot: 42 (Est: $200,Hammer:$387)] Inventory:57.10 Condition: aVF/F+ with roughness and encrustation to reverse. Great example of this Rare coin wonderful stylistic portrait of Amenanos ! Use the Picture as your judge as grading is subjective. Notes: Katane (Catana) was an ancient Greek city on the island of Sicily. The city stood at the foot of Mount Aetna and was founded as a Chalcidian colony from Naxus. Its inhabitants were expelled by Hieron of Syracuse B.C. 476, to make way for a colony of Syracusans. These were, however, driven out B.C. 461, and the old inhabitants restored. The name of the town was changed to Aetna by Hieron when he founded his new colony there, but it was again called Catana after B.C. 461. Katane was for a time the headquarters of the Athenians during their expedition against Syracuse, circa 413-404 B.C. . The finest coins of Katane date from this time until the capture of the city by Dionysius in B.C. 404, when, according to his frequent practice, he sold the population into slavery and gave up the city to his Campanian mercenaries. There are not many bronze coins of Katane which can be attributed to the best period of art but This coin is clearly from this flourishing period of artwork. Some of the heads on the Katanaean tetradrachms of this period are bound with a plain taenia in place of the laurel-wreath and are generally the heads of the river god Amenanos, although he is without the characteristic horn of the river-god. On some of the small denominations Amenanos is represented as a horned youth as here. A First period of coinage on Sicily began around the middle of the sixth century BC in the Dorian colonies, Syracuse, Gela, Agrigentum, etc. The weight standard here was not the Aeginetic but the Euboïc-Attic, which was soon universally adopted throughout the island, even by those Chalcidian colonies which had begun to coin on the supposed Aeginetic standard. The change to the Attic standard took place at Naxos some time after B.C. 498, at Zankle between B.C. 493 and 480, and at Himera in B.C. 482. The original population of Sicily possessed, however, a weight standard of their own, based on the pound or litra of bronze. To this weight of bronze corresponded a silver litra of 13.5 grs. Even during the earliest period of the Aeginetic standard Zancle struck silver coins of this weight, and as it happened to be exactly 1/5 of the Attic drachm, it was readily adopted by those Greek cities which used the Euboïc-Attic standard, as an additional denomination slightly heavier than their own obol, from which they took care to distinguish it by giving it a different type, or by a mark of value. Thus at Syracuse the litra was marked with a sepia and the obol with a wheel. . The coins struck in Sicily during this first period exhibit all the characteristic peculiarities of archaic art, but they are far more advanced, both in style and execution, than the contemporary coins either of Magna Graecia or of Greece proper. A Second Period (480-413 B.C>) of Sicilian coinage starts with the great victory of the Greeks over the Carthaginians at Himera in B.C. 480 which was the prelude to a long interval of peace and prosperity all over Sicily. The coins of this epoch, which are plentiful throughout the island, are of great variety and interest. In style they exhibit a continuous advance upon the methods of archaic art, and a nearer and nearer approach to the highest point of excellence ever reached in the art of die-engraving. The whole period between B.C. 480 and the failure of the Athenian expedition in B.C. 413 may therefore be appropriately called the Period of Transition. Greek art and civilization had already thoroughly penetrated the inland Sikel towns such as Abacaenum, Enna, Galaria, Morgantina, &c., and were now making their way even into the non-Hellenic cities in the western portion of the island, e.g. Segesta and Eryx, ancient cities of the Elymi, and Motya and Panormus, strongholds of Carthage. A Third Period (413-346 BC.) of coinage followed the defeat of the Athenians and included an extraordinary outburst of artistic activity on the part of the great Sicilian cities, especially Syracuse. Syracuse and Agrigentum now issued their magnificent dekadrachms. The following names of engravers, among others, occur on coins of this period: at Syracuse, Euainetos, Kimon, Eukleidas, Parmenidas; at Agrigentum, Myr...; at Camarina, Exakestidas; at Himera, Mai...; at Messana, Kimon, Anan (?)...; at Naxus, Prokles; and at Catana, Herakleidas, Choirion) and Prokles. One of the most striking peculiarities of Sicilian coins is the frequency with which personifications of Rivers and Nymphs are met with. Thus on coins of Himera the type is that of the Nymph of the warm springs; on a coin of Naxos we see the head of a river Assinos (probably the same as the Akesines); at Catana we get a full-face head of the river Amenanos; at Gela and Agrigentum we see the rivers of those towns, the Gelas and the Akragas; while at Camarina the head of the Hipparis appears. On the coins of Selinus the rivers Hypsas and Selinos are represented as offering sacrifice. In the archaic period the Sicilian rivers usually take the form of a man-headed bull, but in the transitional and fine periods they more often assume the human form, and appear as youths with short bulls’ horns over their foreheads. Among the nymphs represented on Sicilian coins are Himera, Arethusa, Kyane (?), Kamarina, and Eurymedusa. It was probably at the beginning of this period that gold and bronze coins were first struck in Sicily, at any rate in considerable quantities. At the time of Dion’s expedition electrum was also introduced, and at Syracuse a large bronze litra was issued, the size of which shows that it was intended as real money and not as a token of artificial value. The Carthaginian invasion at the close of the fifth century spread ruin through the island and put an end to the coinage almost everywhere. Syracuse alone of all the Greek silver-coining cities continued the uninterrupted issue of her beautiful tetradrachms and dekadrachms, and it was these which served as models for the Siculo-Punic currency of the Carthaginian towns. Excerpts taken from Head Hist. Num., and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia We Thank You for stopping in and taking time to look at and bid on our listings. Good Luck Bidding or Buying ! We encourage you to click the "See other items" link above in the "Seller Information" area of the listing as well to check out our other items posted. We have a variety of great classical and other ancient numismatic items available. We will be regularly continuing to post for sale and auction a wide variety of Ancient Roman, Greek, and Eastern coins as well as Medieval, Byzantine, and some Modern coins as well. We can combine shipping if buying or winning multiple items. 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Price: 125 USD

Location: Seattle, Washington

End Time: 2024-01-21T19:11:51.000Z

Shipping Cost: 4 USD