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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;zumbly, post: 2470873, member: 57495&quot;]This past week was an especially satisfying coin week for me with three packages of goodies arriving.&nbsp; Most of the coins are still in my sorting box waiting to get fondled, photographed and catalogued (and maybe fondled a few more times for good measure), but I think I won&#039;t be minding taking my time with them <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>This Syracusan tetradrachm is one of my favorites of the new arrivals.&nbsp; Many of these tetradrachms were struck on flans too compact for the dies and tended to lose parts of the design, particularly on the obverse with the charioteer, horses, flying Victory or any exergual symbols suffering the most.&nbsp; I was really pleased when I managed to get one with a large 28mm flan, almost complete devices, and from well-executed dies.&nbsp; Because of the wear, the coin has unfortunately lost all but a hint of the meander pattern on Arethusa&#039;s sakkos, but a better grade will have to wait for a bigger budget.</p><p><br /></p><p>As always, share &#039;em if you got &#039;em!</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]519741[/ATTACH] </p><p><b>SICILY, Syracuse</b></p><p>Second Democracy (466-405 BC)</p><p>AR Tetradrachm. 17.24g, 28.7mm. Struck circa 430 BC. Boehringer Series XX, 644 (V327/R443); HGC 2, 1319; SNG ANS 209. O: Charioteer driving slow quadriga right; above, Nike flying right, crowning horses. R: ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΟΝ, Head of Arethusa right, wearing hooked-shaped earring and necklace, hair bound in sakkos ornamented with a meander pattern; four dolphins around. </p><p><i>Ex Colin E. Pitchfork Collection</i></p><p><br /></p><p>NOTES: This variety of Syracusan tetradrachm was struck during the city&#039;s so-called Second Democracy, the 60 years between the tyrant dynasties of the Deinomenids and the Dionysii.&nbsp; Different issues of the period have Arethusa&#039;s hair done in a variety of styles - bunned, tied with a band, drawn up in a top knot, be-ribboned, and in a sakkos.&nbsp; This period also saw the first Syracusan tetradrachms with signed dies - Boehringer 697, 6 (V344/R475).[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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