Sicily. Leontinoi. Tetradrachm. Circa 455-430 BC 23 mm, 17.33 g.

Laureate head of Apollo right. Rev. ΛE – O – N – TI – NO – N, Lion’s head
right, with open jaws and tongue protruding; around, four barley grains.

Boehringer, Münzgeschichte 34 (same dies); SNG ANS 219 (same dies).

This beautifull tetradrachm of Leontini was struck during a rare moment of peace in the late 5th century BC, between the fall of the Deinomenid dynasty and the rise of Dionysios I. A Chalkidian foundation, Leontini honored Apollo-patron of the Chalkidians and their colonies-with an obverse depicting the god in an unusually delicate and almost nymph-like form, distinguished by his laurel wreath. On the reverse, a lion’s head-playing on the city’s name-is surrounded by four barley grains, alluding to the fertility of the Leontine plain and arranged in a circular pattern that recalls the dolphins encircling Arethusa on contemporary Syracusan coinage.