★ Abduction of Persephone unrecognised by Schwabacher ★

SICILY. Selinos. Circa 410 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 29 mm, 17.37 g, 8 h). ΣΕΛΙΝΟΝΤΙΟ[Ν] Persephone and Hades in quadriga to right; Hades holding the reins with left hand and his right arm around the waist of Persephone, who is catching her wind-tossed veil; wreath above; below, grain ear. Rev. [ΣΕΛΙΝΟΝΤ]ΙΟΝ The river-god Selinos standing to left, holding branch in left hand and phiale in right; before, wreathed altar; below, statue of a bull standing to left upon a platform; above bull, selinon leaf; in exergue, [fish]. BMC 45 ( same dies ) = HGC 2, 1223 = Schwabacher 43 (Q14/S33) corr. ( all as goddess in quadriga ). Light cabinet toning. Rare, and certainly with one of the sharpest obverse strikes known for this type. Areas of flatness; minor scratches and marks, otherwise, extremely fine.

From the Collection of Prof. James M. Collier, acquired from Baldwin's in 1999, ex Classical Numismatic Group MBS 40, 4 December, 1996, 834.

This lot is sold to benefit the Collier Prize in Ancient Numismatics offered by the American Numismatic Society.

As most known coins from this obverse die have a rather weakly struck left side, Schwabacher (as well as museums and auction houses) have desribed the type as "Nike (or goddess), holding reigns, in galloping quadriga right". When this coin was sold by CNG in 1996, the cataloguers did realize that something was odd and - picking up earlier tetradrachms from Selinos - declared the couple to be "Apollo and Artemis". However, the outstanding obverse of our specimen clearly shows a youthful woman quite obviously unaccustomed to fast rides, and a bearded and somewhat rough looking man (is he grinning?). A bearded Apollo is a step too far, we think. The incident depicted here is obviously the abduction of Persephone by Hades (cf. BM Inv. 1885,0314.1 for a volute crater from Apulia) which took place on the island of Sicily! The interpretation of our obverse is even more compelling when compared to Roman Provincial coins from Henna in Sicily (RPC 661), depicting the very same scene - but in bronze and several hundred years later. Exciting!