3457

UNITED STATES: pewter 'dekadrachm' (25.12g), 1897. EF

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:70.00 USD Estimated At:80.00 - 120.00 USD
UNITED STATES: pewter 'dekadrachm' (25.12g), 1897. EF
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UNITED STATES: pewter 'dekadrachm' (25.12g), 1897, EF, wreathed head of Arethusa left, surrounded by three swimming dolphins, faint ΣYPAKOΣIΩN behind // charioteer driving quadriga left, being crowned by Nike flying right, ΣTEAPNΣ / MDCCCXCVII in exergue, issued by the Stearns Bicycle Company of Syracuse, New York, after the ancient Syracusan issue by Euainetos. From The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 2, No. 11, March 17, 1898: Stearn Bicycles, like Coins of Ancient Greece, are works of art and represent the highest possible value. The 23-inch frame "Yellow Fellow" and 21-inch drop frame are just the proper sizes for growing boys and girls. If you write E. C. Stearns & Company, asking them to send you their new illustrated catalogue, and will enclose two 2-cent stamps, they will send you an exact reproduction of the famous ten-drachm piece of Dionysius, the Tyrant of Syracuse. Dionysius went over to Syracuse with his four-horse chariot, called the quadriga, and, much to the surprise of the Greeks, won the coveted laurel wreath at the Olympian games. The Greeks refused Dionysius his trophy, however, and, in his rage, he caused to be struck off in commemoration of his victory the most magnificent coin the world has ever known. The coin was made by the greatest sculptor of Athens, Simon (sic). The coin is about as large as the American silver dollar, and is carved in high relief, on one side showing Dionysius in the quadriga being crowned by winged Victory and on the reverse, Arethusa, the tutelary goddess of the sea, surrounded by her dolphins.