AHHH! HERAKLES RELAXS IN HIS HOT TUB

Greek mythology tells of the extensive travels of Heracles in Sicily and of his R&R:

“While passing along the coast of the island…the Nymphs caused warm baths to gush forth so that he might refresh himself after the toil sustained in journeying. There are two of these, called respectively Himeraea and Egestaea, each of them having its name from the place where the baths are.” (Diodorus Siculus 4.23.1)

A new acquisition is from the location of one of those baths.

After the destruction of Himera, on the North coast of Sicily, by the Carthaginians in 408 BC, the refugees were encouraged to settle in another coastal area about 8 miles to the West of the old city. It became known as Thermai Himerensis, “the hot springs of Himera”. The modern city is known as Termini Imerese:





Thermai Himerensis, Sicily, AR tetradrachm, c 370-350 BC, 27mm, 17.17 g 11h. OBV: Quadriga galloping to left, driven by a female charioteer who leans forward, with a kentron in her right hand and the reins in her left; above left, Nike flying right to crown the driver; [in exergue, altar] / REV: Female head (Arethusa? Tanit? Demeter?) to left, wearing grain wreath, triple pendant earring and necklace; around, four dolphins swimming right; behind head, prow. Jenkins, Punic 72, 4 (same dies); HGC 2 1611 (R2, this coin); SNG Lloyd 1039 (same dies).

In my quest for silver staters of Magna Graecia, I have acquired nice examples of Tarentum (4), Laos, Metapontum, Poseidonia, Thurium, Velia, Katane, Messana (2), Segesta, Selinus, and Syracuse. Coins of Thermai Himerensis were previously included with Siculo-Punic issues since it was, except for brief periods, under Carthaginian rule. This despite the fact that none of them have Punic legends. Sear, Hoover, and other references now list them under the city. However, the tetradrachms of this city are so rare they were not on my list.

SNG ANS has only two tetradrachms of Thermai Himerensis and none of this type. In his seminal work, Coins of Punic Sicily, 1971, G.K. Jenkins knew of only four examples, all from these same dies. There are no tetradrachms of the city listed in Sear, Greek Coins and Their Values. Hoover, Volume 2, 1611 lists the type as R2 (fewer than 25 known) and THIS COIN IS HIS PLATE COIN! acsearch.info includes only one other example, which appears in four different auctions. It exhibits more die wear and corrosion on the obverse and less detail on the reverse than the subject coin:



Each of the dies used for this issue was created by a talented celator, but the state of the dies as the coins were being struck differs greatly. Was the obverse die engraved earlier, perhaps producing coins in another city before being paired with the well-preserved reverse die? Or maybe the obverse die was stored under adverse conditions, allowing it to rust and corrode before joining its relatively pristine mate. It might even have been a larger issue, with only coins struck with the damaged die surviving. As can be said of so many aspects of ancient coins, we will never know.

Post your coins struck with dies which are mismatched relative to preservation or strike.

 

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I don't know why my images didn't come through..working on it!

 

Well, I'm stumped. The images appeared fine before posting and they appear perfectly when I try to edit, but when I finish, I get the acsearch.info error message.

 

Hmmm...I can insert smaller images, but not the larger ones I tried first: very frustrating!

 

You're good now.

 

Lovely coin! I'm assuming its from today's Nomos auction?

One minor cataloging point. You say "HGC 2, 1611 (R2, this coin)." The modifier "this coin" can only be used when the ENTRY refers to that specific coin, as in a collection, museum catalog, or corpus. Since HGC is a general reference with entries referring not to specific coins but to types or issues, it should be described as "this coin illustrated."

This coin also sold in Künker 270 (2 October 2015), lot 8109, and in Hess-Divo 320 (26 October 2011), lot 53.

 

Thank you, Ardatirion. Yes, it was from today's Obolos 4 auction at Nomos AG.
I had already noted the two prior auction appearences.

 

Here's a larger image of your fabulous new coin, ancientnut

Beautiful portrait!

 

This coin seemed to have some the devices for assisting the engraving process, like discussed in another thread.

BTW what is a kentron?

 

Thank you, TIF! I have no idea why my larger images refused to appear!

 

A kentron is the short whip held by the charioteer.

 

because you linked the thumbnail. hence the "m." in the url
www.tinypic.com free upload space

 

I originally linked the enlarged photos, but they wouldn't show when I posted the thread. So I finally inserted the smaller images and it posted...still a mystery to me!

 

Super coin, and the guide lines are an added bonus in my opinion. Congratulations!

 

From the sublime to the, well...less than sublime, my addition to this thread is a humble little bronze of Himera...



SICILY, Himera.
AE hemilitron, 3.2g, 15mm, 4h; c. 420 - 409 B.C.
Obv.: [IME]; Head of nymph Himera left, wearing sphendone, six pellets before (off flan).
REv.: Six pellets within laurel wreath.
Reference: SNG Cop 320; Calciati I p. 43, 35; SGCV I 1110; SNG ANS 186

 

@ancientnut .....I absolutely LOVE that portrait!!!

 

Addendum to thread:
While researching Thermai Himerensis, I found this little piece of history:

"The Romans returned...to besiege Thermai in 253 BC. Through a stroke of luck the Romans managed to capture the city's gatekeeper while he was heeding the call of nature outside the walls. They released him in return for the promise that he would open the gates to them at a specified time. The gatekeeper honored his promise, but when the leaders...entered the city, they ordered him to close the gates again so that they could keep the plunder for themselves. Their greed was amply repaid when, cut off from reinforcements, the Thermitan defenders slaughtered them to a man."
Hoover, Oliver D., Handbook of coins of Sicily, 2012, p. 418

 

ancientnut => that's a very cool book (I have it too)

 

Wow, ancientnut => I love your OP-coin (it's gorgeous ... congrats)

Ummm, I have a far more humble example from Syracuse (wanna see it?)




=> Nice, these coins are awesome, eh? (congrats again on such a sweet OP-addition)

cheers, coinbro!!

 

and my humble bronze...