SICILY. Katane. Circa 410-403 BC. Hemidrachm (Silver, 13 mm, 1.79 g, 7 h). Facing head of Silenos, balding, bearded and with pointed ears. Rev. KATANAIΩ-N Laureate head of Apollo to right. Basel 333 (this coin). Mirone 101. Jameson 555 (same dies). Salinas pl. 19, 16. Very rare. A beautifully toned coin of exceptionally fine style, struck in very high relief and with a delightful sculptural facing head of Silenos. Minor corrosion on the reverse, otherwise, extremely fine.


Although Katane was one of the oldest Greek settlements in Sicily, its earliest coinage only dates to the decade after 476 BC, when Syracuse captured and resettled the city, now named Aitna, with colonists. In 466 BC, the exiled native population returned to Katane in the wake of the fall of the Syracusan tyrannis and started striking its own coinage, which became one of the most impressive in all of Sicily. Katane hired artists such as Kra..., Euainetos and Herakleidas, whose works included some truly wonderful pieces of art. The present coin is part of a small series of beautiful coins showing the head of Silenos, an old and familiar type at Katane, not in profile but facing from the front. This innovative design by an unnamed master engraver mirrors the contemporary developments in nearby Syracuse, where Kimon and Herakleidas in particular experimented with facing portraits. Unfortunately, from an artistic point of view, the magnificent Classical coinage of Katane came to an abrupt end shortly thereafter, when Dionysios I of Syracuse captured the city in 403 BC and sold its surviving population into slavery.