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Lot # 137 - Sicily. Syracuse. Thoinon and Sosistratos magistrates. AV Hemistater-Dekadrachm, c. 278 BC. Obv. ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΩΝ. Head of Persephone left, wearing wreath of grain leaves, pendant earring and pearl necklace; behind neck, bee. Rev. Nike, holding goad in her right hand and reins in her left driving biga galloping to right; below, Θ; in exergue, [ΕΠΙ ΙΚΕΤΑ] (but erased in the die). Cf. HGC 2 1277 (Hiketas); Buttrey, Morgantina, 5-R (same obv. die). SNG Munich 1292. AV. 4.28 g. 16.00 mm. RRR. Extremely rare. EF. Of the greatest historical interest. This coin provides particularly eloquent testimony to the troubled times of the 270s in Sicily. After the death of Agathokles in 289 there seems to have been constant fighting by various generals in an attempt to reconsolidate his power. Not only were there local tyrants, as usual the Carthaginians were involved as well. In Syracuse the people appointed Hiketas their general and protector in 288: he ruled as tyrant (he never took the royal title) until, after a severe defeat by the Cathaginians, he was ousted in 278 by Thoinon, who had been one of his officers. He was, in turn attacked by Sosistratos who was tyrant of Akragas; however, faced by a Carthaginian attack they joined forces and finally pledged their loyalty to Pyrrhos who had arrived in Sicily as the saviour of the Greeks. To avoid further strife Pyrrhos had Thoinon executed and forced Sosistratos to flee the city. The present coin was struck during the short period when Thoinon was in power: the dies were originally produced for Hiketas’ coinage but his name was carefully erased from the reverse.
Lot # 168 - Greek Asia. Cyprus, Paphos. King Onasi. AR Stater, mid 5th century BC. Obv. Bull standing left on beaded double line; winged solar disk above; ankh to left. Rev. Eagle standing left; ankh to left; Cypriot legend around (=Basi(leos) Ona(si)); all in dotted square border within incuse square. BMC -; Destrooper-Georgiades, p. 196, 13; Gulbenkian 809; NFA sale 2, 1976, 275. AR. 9.96 g. 23.50 mm. RRR. Extremely rare and in excellent condition for issue. Reverse die break. Lovely light cabinet tone. VF/Good VF. The existence of this issue in name of 'Ona' in the style of the coinage struck in the name of Stasandros illustrates the many problems of attribution in early Cypriot numismatics. We know of coins attributed to a king 'Onasioikos' which utilise the same obverse type of a bull with ankh and solar disk, but with a flying eagle as the reverse design (BMC pl. XXI, 14 = Traité II 1306). This in itself is not unusual, since Cypriot cities often continued the same obverse type under different rulers much as other Greek city-states did. The present coin however, which bears the name of 'Ona'(sioikos), but utilises the same reverse type as the staters of King Stasandros with the only difference being the legend, suggests a more direct link between the two rulers than has hitherto been widely assumed. Indeed, the style of the reverse is so similar to archaic style issues of Stasandros (see following lot, certainly the work of the same hand), that it appears to conclusively demonstrate that this king Onasioikos was the immediate predecessor of Stasandros, since the latter retained the same types as seen on this issue for his first coinage. This theory is supported by the difference in style between the issues of Stasandros - the following lot, the 'earlier' issue, being distinctly archaic in appearance, while the 'later' issue is more classical in style. In a thorough analysis of this mint and inscriptions, A. Destrooper-Georgiades (Le monnaies frappées à Paphos (Chypre) durant la deuxième moitié du Ve siècle et leur apport à l'histoire de l'île" in Proceedings of the 12th International Numismatic Congress, Berlin 2000, pp. 194-8), proposes a sequence of kings based on the available numismatic evidence which securely places Onasioikos prior to the reign of Stasandros, who is in turn succeeded by at least two other kings, Mineos and Zoalios, who are known to history only from their inscriptions on re-engraved coins of Stasandros. The evidence presented by Destrooper-Georgiades demonstrates with a high degree of probability that the issues attributed to Onasioikos bearing the flying eagle reverse (generally dated to 400 BC without supporting evidence) are in fact an earlier issue of the same king named on the present type, and that his flying-eagle coinage should clearly be redated to before the reign of Stasandros. The archaistic appearance of the flying-eagle type weighs heavily in favour of this, since a backwards step from classical style to archaic is counter-intuitive. Destrooper-Georgiades proposes a revised dating of circa 450 BC for the flying-eagle type of Onasioikos, and a period from the mid-fifth century to the first decades of the fourth century for the standing-eagle coinage of Onasioikos, Stasandros, Mineos and Zoalios. (Cf. Roma Numismatics 13, 2017, 405).