The Most Beautiful Greek Coins Ever Made: Kimon’s Decadrachms

In its upcoming auction, Numismatica Genevensis will be presenting two specimens of the most beautiful coins of Greek numismatics – or even of all time, actually. These coins are two Syracusan decadrachms by Kimon, featuring an almost portrait-like image of Arethusa on the reverse.

The Last Coins of Independent Syracuse

The second part of Künker’s Spring Auction Sales is dedicated to antiquity: This article presents three specimens that are among the last coins that were issued by independent Syracuse while the Romans besieged the city and Archimedes built his defense machines.

The Most Expensive Greek Coin

We cannot do CoinsWeekly Coin Records without acknowledging the most expensive Greek coin! The famous piece sold for more 2 million Swiss francs.

Human Faces Part 3: The Nymph of the Spring Arethusa

For centuries the nymph Arethusa had been the beautiful face of the city of Syracuse. Here you will get information why she figured on the Syracusan coins.

Big price for an emergency coin

The city of Syracuse issued a marvelous gold coin during its war against the Carthaginians. A perfect specimen of this emission sold for 66.700 Euro during the last auction sale of Gorny & Mosch…

And this is where Aristotle was wrong…

Aristotle, in his work on the structure of the Tarentine government, likewise described the coins of the city. He remarked that they depicted Taras, son of Poseidon, riding a dolphin. Was he right? Or is there another, more possible, option?

80,000 Euros for a work of two Sicilian die cutters

For an impressive amount of money some extraordinary Greek coins were auctioned at Gorny & Mosch’s, Giessener Münzhandlung on October 10. One of them is a remarkable tetradrachm from Syracuse whose story you will read here…

The Punic Goddess

On Friday, March 13, 2015, Künker auctions off a Siculo-Punic coin with an enigmatic depiction: on the obverse we see a beautiful woman with a Phrygian cap. Is it Dido? Is it Tanit? Or is it perhaps a completely different goddess?

Sicilian Mosaic Part 10: Rescue by the Mother City of Corinth

After the murder of Dion, the ruler of Syracuse, his followers looked for help in Corinth, where the founding settlers of Syracuse had come from many centuries ago. And Timoleon in fact succeeded in stabilizing the Syracusan region.

Sicilian Mosaic Part 11: The classical coinage of Syracuse

Syracusan coins are among the most beautiful strikings of antiquity. Have a look at a few examples in the following.