No Reserve

Sicily, the Tyrrhenoi Æ 31mm. Circa 354/3-336 BC. Helmeted head of Athena to right; TYPPH around / Athena standing facing, head to left, holding spear in right hand and resting hand on grounded shield to right; M in right field. Castrizio series I, 1; Campana 1; CNS 1; HGC 2, 1657. 35.46g, 31mm, 5h.

Fine. Very Rare.

Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., E-Sale 81, 25 February 2021, lot 71;
Ex collection of a Photographer, Roma Numismatics Ltd., E-Sale 64, 28 November 2019, lot 226;
Ex Hans Hermann Gutknecht Collection, Münzen & Medaillen Deutschland GmbH, Auction 17, 4 October 2005, lot 402;
Acquired in 1987.

In 384 Dionysios I of Syracuse raided the south coast of Etruria and returned to Sicily with a band of Etruscan soldiers who had surrendered. He probably settled them in the vicinity of the Sileraioi, near present-day Alimena. Here these Etruscan mercenaries struck coins naming themselves as the Tyrrhenoi - the Greek exonym for the Etruscans (their own name for themselves being Rasenna). This mercenary mint ceased to mint coinage overstruck on Syracusan drachmae when the Tyrrhenoi were wiped out by Timoleon in the 330s BC.