Highlights from Roma Numismatics' The Anders Collection Auction

Kicking off our featured lots this week is this extremely fine, wonderful old cabinet tone Syracus AR Tetradrachm from the Time of Agathokles, circa 310-305 BC. Featuring the wreathed head of Arethusa, this coin highlights Agathokles patronage of the arts, leaving a legacy of beauty embodied by surviving works of art such as this coin. It hit a fantastic hammer price of £4,600.

Next up, we're highlighting this very rare and intriguing Sicily, Mamar... Æ Hemilitron from Circa 409-403 BC. Remaining an enigma in Sicilian coinage, the legend on this extremely rare issue was thought by Imhoof-Blumer to be an abbreviation for ΜΑΜΕΡΤΙΝΩΝ, and thus attributed these coins to the Mamertinoi, while Buceti contends that Mamar was in fact simply the name of the as-yet unknown city that struck the coins. Adding to it's mystery, this coin hammered for £700.

This very fine, attractively toned, and extremely rare variant with pellet on reverse is the first to come to auction in over a decade, finishing with a final hammer price of £2,200. Taken from the Time of Timoleon and the Third Democracy, circa 344-388 BC, it includes Pegasus flying on one side, and the Head of Athena on the other.

Fourth on our list this week is this very fine, extremely rare Sicily, Paropos Æ 16mm from Circa 200-150 BC. Only the second recorded example in history, it features a laureate and bearded male head on one side, and a hound at bay on the other. Parapos was a coastal settlement in northwestern Sicily, located somewhere between Panormos and Thermai Himeraiai, and was from here that Hamilcar inflicted a serious military defeat on Rome in 260 BC during the First Punic War.

Closing out our featured lots this week is this rare and highly attractive silver 12 Litrai of Syracuse from 214-212 BC, with the marvellous reverse of the goddess Artemis hunting. Known for roaming the forests of Greece, attended by an entourage of nymphs, mortals, and hunters, Artemis is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, nature, childbirth, and chastity. It hit a final hammer price of £3,800.