Obv. Fast quadriga driven left by clean-shaven charioteer, wearing long chiton, leaning forward to restrain horses while holding kentron and reins, above, Nike flying r. to crown him.
Rev. ΣΥΡΑΚOΣΙΟΝ, head of Arethusa left, wearing hook earring, necklace and ampyx, inscribed EVME / NOV. Around, two couples of dolphins swimming snout to snout.
Silver, 17,32 g, 24,4 mm. Rizzo pl. XLII, 4 (these dies). Jameson 788 (this reverse die). Boston 399 (these dies). AMB 456 (these dies). Tudeer 7.
Good Very Fine. Coin minted with the same dies as the one from the Numismatica Ars Classica NAC AG auction (07.10.2009, Auction 52, lot 74) - https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=672928.
In his 1913 study of Syracusan tetradrachms from the period of signed dies, Lauri Tudeer commenced with the group of Sosion and Eumenes, to which this coin belongs. This first group shows a chariot in profile and an elegant portrait of Artemis-Arethusa with her hair bundled at the back of her head. The subsequent group continues the profile chariot, yet changes the image of the goddess with the addition of loose curls at the extremities of her coiffure. Tudeer’s first group has four obverse and six reverse dies; the obverses are all unsigned, but half of the reverses bear signatures at the top of the Arethusa’s ampyx – one for Sosion and two for Eumenes. It is a tight-knit group, and even if the work of at least two artists is represented, the die linking leaves no doubt that they were contemporaries. The unprecedented use of signatures and a fresh artistic approach show that this was a time of innovation at the mint of Syracuse, and suggests that the egos of the artists were at odds. In this initial period Sosion and Eumenes worked with an identical design format, making the quality of engraving the only method of distinction. Both excelled, and were it not for the presence of their signatures, their works might essentially be inseparable. For reasons unknown, Sosion produced no other signed dies and Eumenes appears to have eclipsed him at the mint until he, in turn, was overtaken by later contemporaries, such as Eucleidas and Euainetos.
