FLOAT 100 · Coins · No. 51
Syracuse Decadrachm (Kimon)
In a city at war around 405 BC, an engraver named Kimon cut a portrait of a water nymph so lifelike that collectors still argue whether she was modeled on a real woman, and he signed it on a dolphin swimming past her neck.
- Year
- c.405 BC
- Maker
- Syracuse (Sicily), ancient Greece, signed by engraver Kimon
- By price in coins
- 69 of 100
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Create a free account- Struck
- Syracuse, Sicily, about 405 to 400 BC, early in the rule of the tyrant Dionysius I
- Engraver
- Kimon, whose signature appears on a dolphin, on Arethusa's headband or, on some dies, in more than one place
- Chariot side
- A four-horse chariot racing left, Nike flying above to crown the driver, and a row of armor labeled ΑΘΛΑ, "prizes"
- Portrait side
- Head of the nymph Arethusa left, hair in a net and headband, earring and necklace, four dolphins around, and the city name ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΩΝ
- Weight and size
- About 43 g; recorded examples weigh 43.21 g (40 mm) and 43.35 g
- Denomination
- Decadrachm, ten drachms, the largest coin circulating in Sicily at the time
- Rival master
- Euainetos, whose signed decadrachms follow Kimon's and continued through Dionysius I's reign
- Highest price found for a Kimon example
- £320,000 hammer, reported as $391,165, September 2023
A war coin with an artist's name on it
Syracuse had been striking its own coins for about a century when, around 405 BC, it began issuing a new series of huge silver decadrachms, ten-drachm pieces weighing about 43 grams. The city was in danger. Carthage had renewed its war in Sicily in 409 BC, and in 406 BC its army sacked Akragas, one of the richest Greek cities on the island, then took Gela and Camarina.
In that crisis Syracuse elected a commander, Dionysius, in 406 BC, and the following year he seized total power as tyrant. He relied on mercenary soldiers, and several sources link the decadrachms to paying them: they were big enough for large military payments, and the coins appear to have been struck in considerable numbers.
Not everyone agrees on the reason. Many of the coins carry the word ΑΘΛΑ, "prizes," beneath a display of armor, and one museum suggests that the coins may themselves have been prizes, perhaps awarded to the engravers who won contracts in competitions. One auction catalog tied the series to Dionysius's war with Carthage in 405 BC, though that campaign went badly for him and ended in a treaty that left Carthage holding its recent conquests. Ancient writers left almost no clues, and scholars have debated the question since the seventeenth century.
Kimon and Euainetos
Greek coinage traditionally emphasized the city that issued it, not the craftsman who made the dies. At Syracuse in the late fifth century BC, the leading engravers began signing their dies, a practice almost unheard of in the ancient world. Two names stand above the rest: Kimon and Euainetos.
Kimon's signature turns up in several places. On some decadrachms it is on the dolphin beneath Arethusa's neck; on others it is worked into the metal band across her hair, sometimes as a single K. On some dies he signed three times, on both sides of the coin, while the tyrant who ruled the city is not named at all. He is also credited with one of the most daring designs in Greek coinage, a tetradrachm with Arethusa's head turned three-quarters toward the viewer.
Euainetos's signed decadrachms come slightly later, and some scholars suggest he trained under Kimon, though that is not certain. His Arethusa wears a wreath of reeds and looser hair. The scholar G. K. Jenkins called Kimon arguably the greatest of the artists at the Syracusan mint, with "a bold touch combined with an unequalled degree of delicate control and harmony of design."
The masters probably cut only a few dies themselves and had assistants copy them. That may explain the unsigned decadrachms in Kimon's style. One museum suggests an unsigned example may have been struck by an apprentice closely copying the master.
Reading the coin
One side shows a four-horse chariot racing left at full gallop. The driver leans into the motion, holding the reins and a goad, while Nike, the goddess of victory, flies above with a wreath. Earlier Syracusan chariots walked; these gallop, drawn in three-quarter view with overlapping horses. Beneath the ground line sit a shield, a cuirass, a pair of greaves and a crested helmet, joined by a spear and labeled ΑΘΛΑ.
The other side shows the head of Arethusa facing left, wearing an earring and a beaded necklace, her curly hair held by a band and a net. Four dolphins swim around her and the city's name runs behind her head. In myth, Arethusa was a nymph who fled the river god Alpheus and reemerged as a freshwater spring on Ortygia, the island at the heart of Syracuse. One auction catalog describes Kimon's version as clearly modeled on a real woman of Greek Sicily.
The deep engraving was hard on the dies. Many surviving examples show die breaks across Arethusa's forehead, eye and hair, and roughness in the fields. Catalogs describe the chariot as the obverse and the portrait of Arethusa as the reverse. Top examples are now certified by third-party graders, who note strike, surface and whether the coin shows fine style.
Pedigrees and prices
Because the coins have been prized for so long, many carry long ownership records. A Kimon decadrachm sold on January 13, 2023, was first recorded in a June 1922 auction and sold again in 1933, just over a century of documented history. Graded NGC Extremely Fine, Strike 5/5, Surface 4/5, with fine style, and signed KI on the portrait side, it brought $108,000.
In May 2023 an example from unsigned dies by Kimon, graded NGC Choice XF with a star, Strike 4/5, Surface 5/5, Fine Style, sold for $180,000. It weighs 43.21 grams, measures 40 millimeters, and was struck on a flan wide enough to show the whole portrait side and nearly all of the chariot side. It had been sold in a 1902 auction and was later in the collection of Countess Zichy, offered in 2005.
The highest price found for a Kimon decadrachm came in September 2023, when an Extremely Fine signed example weighing 43.35 grams sold for a hammer price of £320,000, reported as $391,165, against an estimate of £600,000. It had been in the Nelson Bunker Hunt collection, sold on June 19, 1990, for a $270,000 hammer price. The catalog called its Arethusa perhaps Kimon's finest, "more human and less sculpturally remote" than his earlier dies.
In the same September 2023 sale, two decadrachms signed by Euainetos sold for £130,000 ($158,911) and £40,000 ($48,896) at the hammer.
A model for centuries
The Syracusan decadrachms were admired and copied across the Mediterranean. A silver coin of Larissa in Thessaly from about 380 to 370 BC borrows directly from the Syracusan portrait of a nymph. According to one auction catalog, the coins were also set as medallions in silver vessels and used as molds for black-glazed pottery cups made around Capua in the third century BC.
Their neighbors competed too. Akragas struck its own decadrachm shortly before its fall in 406 BC, which one auction firm said was meant to show that its mint could equal or exceed the best of Syracuse; an example sold for 2,714,000 Swiss francs, reported as $2,918,810, a record at the time for a Greek silver coin. A Syracusan tetradrachm associated with Kimon brought 2,737,000 Swiss francs, reported as $3,052,750, in 2014.
Few ancient engravers are known by name, and fewer are remembered as artists. Kimon is one of them, largely because of this coin.
The numbers
- Mintage
- Not recorded; sources describe the decadrachms as struck in considerable numbers
- Known survivors
- No census found in the sources used
- Weight
- 43.21 g and 43.35 g for two recorded Kimon examples
- Diameter
- 40 mm (the 43.21 g example)
- Composition
- Silver
- Designer
- Kimon, die engraver at Syracuse
- References
- Jongkees; Regling; HGC 2, 1298
Timeline
Athens sends a great expedition against Syracuse; it ends in disaster for the Athenians.
Carthage begins a new war in Sicily.
Carthaginian forces sack Akragas; Syracuse elects Dionysius supreme military commander.
Dionysius seizes power as tyrant of Syracuse.
Syracuse begins striking decadrachms with dies by Kimon, followed by Euainetos.
Dionysius I dies; Euainetos's decadrachm dies had continued to the end of his reign.
An unsigned Kimon-style decadrachm is sold at auction; it reappears in 2005 and 2023.
A signed Kimon decadrachm is first recorded at auction; it sells again in 1933.
A signed Kimon decadrachm sells for a $270,000 hammer price in the Nelson Bunker Hunt collection sale.
The 1902 coin is offered with the Countess Zichy collection.
The coin first recorded in 1922, graded NGC XF, sells for $108,000.
The unsigned Kimon-style coin, graded NGC Choice XF with a star, sells for $180,000.
The former Hunt coin sells for a £320,000 hammer price, reported as $391,165.
A European auction catalog highlights a decadrachm signed in three places by Kimon.
The world in 413
The Athenian expedition against Syracuse ends in defeat.
Carthage captures and sacks Akragas, then takes Gela and sacks Camarina.
Sparta's Lysander destroys the Athenian fleet at Aegospotami, the last major battle of the Peloponnesian War.
The Peloponnesian War ends after 27 years.
Socrates is tried in Athens for impiety and corrupting the youth.
Dionysius fights another war with Carthage, with mixed results.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 19, 1990 | $270,000 | Sold at auctionSigned Kimon decadrachm, 43.35 g, Nelson Bunker Hunt collection. Hammer price. |
| Jan 13, 2023 | $108,000 | Sold at auctionSigned KI, NGC Extremely Fine, Strike 5/5, Surface 4/5, fine style; provenance to 1922. |
| May 3, 2023 | $180,000 | Sold at auctionUnsigned dies by Kimon, 43.21 g, NGC Choice XF star, Strike 4/5, Surface 5/5, Fine Style. Includes buyer's premium. |
| Sep 2023 | $733,434 | Estimate, not a salePre-sale estimate of £600,000 for the former Hunt coin. |
| Sep 2023 | $391,165 | Sold at auctionFormer Hunt coin, signed Kimon, Extremely Fine, 43.35 g. Hammer price of £320,000. |
A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.
By reference price, Syracuse Decadrachm (Kimon) is number 69 of 100 in the coins entries of the FLOAT 100. 96 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (51 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- ΑΘΛΑ, the word under the armor on these coins, means "prizes"; the English word athlete comes from the same root.
- On some dies Kimon signed his name three times, while the tyrant who ruled Syracuse is not named at all.
- The nymph Arethusa was the spirit of a freshwater spring on Ortygia, the island at the center of Syracuse.
- The coins were reportedly used as molds for black-glazed pottery cups made in Italy a century or more later.
- A Kimon decadrachm that sold for a $270,000 hammer price in 1990 brought £320,000 at the hammer in 2023.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026