GELA SILVER TETRADRACHM – RARE VARIETY WITH SOSIPOLIS EX SALTON, JAMESON AND EVANS COLLECTIONS – VF FINE STYLE NGC GRADED GREEK SICILY COIN (Inv. 20370)

SOLD

20370. SICILY. GELA. Ca. 440–430 BC.
Silver Tetradrachm, 17.30 g, 26 mm.
Obv. Charioteer driving quadriga right, Nike flying right, crowning horses. Rev. Forepart of man–headed bull right, nymph Sosipolis standing left, holding caduceus (off planchet) and crowning him.
Jenkins, Gela, Group V, 371.1 (this coin listed citing Jameson collection); Jameson, 587 (citing Evans pedigree).
Ex Salton Collection, Stack’s Bowers January 2022 NYINC Auction, 1/16/2022, lot 4113 = ex Robert Jameson Collection, no. 587, stated there to be ex Sir Arthur J. Evans Collection, together with a number of other specimens from Gela and South Italy that Jameson acquired. Although this tetradrachm is unpublished in the auction catalogues of Evans’ collection, it should be noted that the Naville Ars Classica IV of 6/17/1922, which included Evans’ coins, featured two specimens of this rare piece – lots 244 and 245, the latter from the same dies as this specimen. It seems possible this tetradrachm (and likely others) was acquired by Jameson from the Evans collection privately, perhaps to avoid overloading the sale with such rarities.
NGC graded VF, Strike 4/5, Surface 2/5, FINE STYLE, Jenkins publication and Jameson provenance noted on label.

The basic types of this coin had a long history at Gela by the time this tetradrachm was struck. The quadriga obverse type alludes to victory in the chariot race at the Olympic Games – the most prestigious event for the elite of any Greek city. It also reflects the influence of the powerful Sicilian city of Syracuse, which had employed the chariot as the standard obverse type since the sixth century BC. The reverse depicts the river–god Gelas, after whom the city of Gela was named, in his usual form as a bull with a human face – a form derived from representations of Achelous, the shape–changing river–god defeated by Heracles. This tetradrachm departs from the regular typology of Gela in that the forepart of Gelas is not alone here but crowned by Sosipolis (literally “City Savior”), the nymph of a nearby spring.