Upgrading Coins. A Coin of Syracuse

SICILY, Syracuse, Silver Tetradrachm, Second Democracy, Charioteer/Arethusa, c460-440 BC. Obverse: Charioteer walking horse drawn chariot, holding reins in each hand, Nike above, flying right, holding wreath; ketos below. Reverse: Head of Arethusa right, hair twisted and bound into a chgnon at nape, wearing beaded headband, earring an pearl necklace, four dolphins around, ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙ-O-N 24mm, 17.09g.

The first advice I received when collecting coins was to read extensively before buying. The second piece of advice was to buy the best example of a coin that I could afford - better to have one great coin than two mediocre ones of the same type. Of course, in my initial collecting rush I ignored all advice and bought whatever took my interest. I suspect many early collectors are the same. Eventually you gain experience and are more discerning in the coins you buy, but that leaves you with the challenge of upgrading the coins from your early collection. The coin here is an example of that. The coins of Sicily are extremely collectable at the moment and that means they are expensive but I was lucky enough to pick up this example from a UK retailer, upgrading from an earlier example I had in the collection. The photo really does not do it justice.

Heiro I of Syracuse was a tyrant that greatly increased the power and wealth of Syracuse. On his death in 467 BC he was succeeded by Thrasybulus who stayed in power for only 11 months before being overthrown by the people, leading to the Second Democracy in Syracuse. This was not initially a stable democracy with the original mercenaries under the tyrants being denied the civil rights accorded to the earlier inhabitants of the city, leading to civil strife [Diodorus 11.72.3]. During its 60 year span the democracy lost the Sicilian territories it had gained under Gelon and Heiro I, but survived until it again fell under tyranny with Dionysius I, who obtained autocratic power in 405.

In Greek mythology, Arethusa was a nymph and daughter of Nereu who fled from her home in Arcadia beneath the sea and came up as a freshwater fountain on the island of Ortygia in Syracuse, which still exists today. She became the symbol or type of the early coins of Syracuse and you can see a similar evolution in archaic to classical style as with Athena on the owls of Athens.

Syracuse began minting silver coinage in the last decade of the 6th century BC on the Attic-Euboean standard.

I am not 100% convinced on the attribution here as the reverse seems very close to those produced under Heiron I (475-470 BC). See The Chronological Sequence of the Coins of Syracuse by Barklay Head, plate II.7 and in describing the coins of Heiron, "The series with the pistrix, or sea-monster, exhibits a marked advance upon the archaic style. For instance, the eye of the female head is represented, for the first time, in profile, and no longer with both corners visible as if seen from the front, a peculiarity of archaic art (see another coin in my collection attributed to Heiron I). The hair also is waved and a greater variety is apparent in the mode of arranging it, the plain string of beads being often replaced by a fillet bound two or three times round the head. The horses of the quadriga, as on the earlier coins, are, with a single exception always represented as walking and the charioteer is also always apparently male."

This coin does display the pistrix below the chariot and the head of Arethusa is as described by Head. While it is common to attribute the more classical portraiture to the Second Democracy, the transition on the style is not one I believe is fixed to a change in ruler but more in the aesthetics of the die-engravers of the period. So the transition to the more classical style could have occurred prior to the second democracy in 466 BC and in line with the evolution noted by Head. The plate described by Head does closesly resemble the type of this coin and is attributed by him to Heiron I.