SYRACUSE BRONZE AE25 – OVERSTRIKE OF PYRRHUS ABOVE AGATHOCLES – AU NGC GRADED GREEK SICILY COIN (Inv. 20565)

$1,500.00

20563. SICILY. SYRACUSE. PYRRHUS, 278-276 B.C.
Bronze AE25, 7.21 g, 24 mm.
Obv. ΣYPAKOΣIΩN, head of youthful Heracles left, wearing lionskin headdress. Rev. Athena Promachus standing right, brandishing spear in her right hand and holding shield with her left.
CNS II 177; HGC 2, 1450; SNG ANS 845; SNG Copenhagen 812; MacDonald -.
NGC graded AU, Strike 3/5, Surface 3/5, “overstruck,” particularly high grade for the series and exceptionally interesting as an overstrike.

This fascinating bronze is clearly overstruck over an earlier coin, perhaps a Syracusan bronze of Agathocles with a helmeted head of Athena on the obverse (cf. SNG ANS 697-699). The bowl of the helmet and part of the dotted border appear upside down at six o’clock, below Hercules’ neck truncation. While overstrikes of bronzes are seen under the rule of Hicetas (287-278 BC), this seems to be the only readily documented example of such an overstrike under Pyrrhus.