‡ Sicily, Kamarina, didrachm, c. 410 BC, signed by HYL…, ΚΑΜΑΡΙΝΑΙΟ-Ν, diademed and horned head of the river-god Hipparis left; below truncation, ΥΛ, rev., ΚΑΜΑΡΙΝΑ-ΙΟΝ inscribed between double linear circles of border; nymph Kamarina wearing billowing veil seated right on swan flying left over waves; below, fish swimming left, 8.33g, die axis 6.00 (Westermark & Jenkins 158, 8 and enlarged on pl. 23 = ‘Wealth of the Ancient World’ 80, this coin; Rizzo pl. 7, 3 = BMC 18, same dies; Regling, K., Die Antike Münze als Kunstwerk, Berlin, 1924, 541, same obverse die), the only well-centred example struck from the finest dies of the series known, about extremely fine and extremely rare, an exceptional example Exhibited: Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas (1983); Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (1983); Detroit Institute of Arts (1984); Dallas Museum of Art (1984).Provenance: Salman Schocken (1877-1959) collection, Jerusalem; Bank Leu 13, 29 April 1975, lot 46; S. Weintraub collection; Nelson Bunker Hunt collection, part I, Sotheby’s, New York, 19 June 1990, lot 80; European Connoisseur collection (formed before 2002).Note: This exceptionally fine and extremely rare didrachm is the finest known and is the only perfectly centred example of one of the stellar masterpieces of Greek coinage. It was struck during the last brilliant phase when Kamarina had no less than three artists signing their output. In this case, ‘Hyl’, who is otherwise unknown, has created a work of contrasts. The head of the local river-god Hipparis (Kamarina was founded at the mouth of this river) is modelled with a refined purity of line, while for the reverse the engraver has presented us with an elaborate but gracefully rendered scene of the nymph Kamarina, with her veil billowing in the wind, seated upon a swan swimming through roiling waves, presumably those of the river Hipparis. Alternative suggestions to the authorship of this tour de force have been floated (see WAW, p. 185). Based on its remarkably graceful and mature style, and an interpretive reading of the obverse signature, one hypothesis suggests Euainetos (who also worked at Kamarina). Another, much less likely, reads the faintly legible last three letters of the reverse inscription as ‘ΕΞΑ’ (instead of ‘ΙΟΝ’), suggesting Exakestidas. Regardless, both obverse and reverse dies speak of a single artist of genius, who has created a work of ‘great beauty and sensuous charm’ (Jenkins and Westermark, p. 59).

Estimate: GBP 100000-150000