A spectacular Syracuse tetradrachm from the Deinomenid tyranny

[Bannerknight]

At its upcoming November auction, Norwegian Oslo Myntgalleri offers a spectacular tetradrachm from the Deinomenid tyranny.

The auction is not yet online, but the pdf catalogue can be downloaded at the following link:

https://www.oslomyntgalleri.no/wp-content/uploads/OMG39_web-2.pdf

The auction also offers a few wonderful Ptolemiac gold "oktadrachms".

[Deinomenid]

1 hour ago, Bannerknight said:

Deinomenid tyranny

 I object. It was merely firm rule.

Slight shock at the 400k price, until I realised it was NOK though if one were playing over/under, $135k with juice is my best guess.

 

[Theodosius]

How many examples of tetradrachms by the Demaretion master are estimated to exist?  There are reportedly 17 of the dekadrachms I believe. I think this celator also made dies for Leontini?

John

Edited October 22, 2024 by Theodosius
Fixed typo

[Deinomenid]

3 hours ago, Theodosius said:

How many examples of tetradrachms by the Demaretion master are estimated to exist?

This is the relevant  table. The numbers have increased only modestly since Boehringer.

[Brennos]

To my knowledge, 58 tetradrachms and 22 dekadrachms are known 

[Deinomenid]

7 hours ago, Theodosius said:

I think this celator also made does for Leontini?

It's quite possible and recently there's been more weight given to the possibility that he was active at Leontini before Syracuse. That's despite the rather pejorative term for Leontini then as merely the "Syracusean parentheses" period... 

There was plenty of movement between the 2 mints, of celators but also dies - eg Boehringer 63's reverse (R42) was later used with a Leontini obverse (A3) .

    

The below is a series from Maltese of the earliest Leontini reverse dies. Yep,  bh42 (Syracuse)  is one, as part of A3 above!

[Theodosius]

I had no idea dies were exchanged between cities like that. That is really interesting.

John

[Lelouch]

Same I also never knew. This will mess up my database (and I feel many others) if I ever get one. But I'll never have to deal this with problem since it's for a decadrahm lol.

Curious as well, are than other examples?

Edited October 23, 2024 by Lelouch

[Deinomenid]

24 minutes ago, Lelouch said:

Curious as well, are than other examples?

Probably. There was a debate over this  between Boehringer father and  Boehringer son. It  hinges on what was going on in Leontini (which was strangely late to coin) and to what extent  it was an independent  mint, rather than a physically close subpolis of the Deinomenids.  And then relates to  the period of vast coin  production at Syracuse and the possible need for dies. So 2 ways- one, a possible transfer of talent (no pun intended) and dies to Leontini as it started up production and then as massive production (the Massenprägung) started  in Syracuse whether there was help the other way. The debate devolves into who did what/when/where especially over where the R42 coin I show above was recut.

It's  not wholly resolvable, especially as the most likely answer, that of Erich Boehringer (father), was that Leontini  provided a  bunch of its anepigraphic obverses to  help the huge production process. In that case it's hard to specifically prove a certain obverse, unless it had  been  used with a Leontine  reverse.

For specific proof of this  happening though, this  r42 coin is, as Maltese says, "a unique case in the Sicilian numismatic panorama of the classical age." 

For engravers, not dies, there are of course a number of fascinating examples of  engravers moving around on the island and to and from the Greek cites of Italy and possibly mainland Greece.