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  1. In cart, not held Being held Reserved in cart Sold Purchased Watching  
    EAS46, Lot 45:

    SICILY. Messana. The Mamertinoi. Circa 275-264 B.C. Æ quadruple unit. 17.45 gm. 26 mm. Laureate head of Ares right; APEOΣ to right, helmet to left / Bull butting left; MAMEΡ-TI-NΩN around and in exergue. HGC 2, 864. CNS I, 1. SNG ANS 399. Very Fine; good style, well centered, with a dark green patina.

    The ancient city of Zankle, named for its sickle-shaped natural harbor, was a settlement of great antiquity on the northeast tip of Sicily. It was renamed Messana by Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegion.

    In about 288 B.C. a force of Oscan mercenaries, the Mamertinoi, attacked Messana and massacred the inhabitants. They ruled the city until the Romans won the island in the Punic Wars.

    The tyrants of Sicily had always employed mercenaries, often hired in Campania and Central Italy. In a land famed for its sweeping landscapes, ideal for the breeding of strong horses, the emergent Campanian nobility developed their renowned cavalry. Carrying heavy javelins for skirmishing and swords for melee, they used speed, agility, and flexibility of tactics to inflict damage on more heavily armed and therefore more slowly moving opponents. When King Agathocles of Syracuse died, many of his strong young mercenaries refused to leave Sicily and captured the Greek city of Messana in circa 288. They adopted the name of their war god Mamers, Oscan for Mars, often fighting like pirates and plundering the neighboring districts. Their activities which finally engaged the Romans against the Carthaginians set off the First Punic War (264-241 B.C.).

  2. In cart, not held Being held Reserved in cart Sold Purchased Watching  
    EAS46, Lot 46:

    SICILY. Messana. The Mamertinoi. Circa 275-264 B.C. Æ double unit. 9.18 gm. 20.5 mm. Laureate head of Ares right; spear head to left / Eagle standing left on thunderbolt, wings spread. HGC 2, 870. CNS I, 2. SNG ANS 401. Good Very Fine; attractive red-brown and green patina; good style, sharply struck and well centered. Rare.

    The ancient city of Zankle, named for its sickle-shaped natural harbor, was a settlement of great antiquity on the northeast tip of Sicily. It was renamed Messana by Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegion.

    In about 288 B.C. a force of Oscan mercenaries, the Mamertinoi, attacked Messana and massacred the inhabitants. They ruled the city until the Romans won the island in the Punic Wars.

    The tyrants of Sicily had always employed mercenaries, often hired in Campania and Central Italy. In a land famed for its sweeping landscapes, ideal for the breeding of strong horses, the emergent Campanian nobility developed their renowned cavalry. Carrying heavy javelins for skirmishing and swords for melee, they used speed, agility, and flexibility of tactics to inflict damage on more heavily armed and therefore more slowly moving opponents. When King Agathocles of Syracuse died, many of his strong young mercenaries refused to leave Sicily and captured the Greek city of Messana in circa 288. They adopted the name of their war god Mamers, Oscan for Mars, often fighting like pirates and plundering the neighboring districts. Their activities which finally engaged the Romans against the Carthaginians set off the First Punic War (264-241 B.C.).

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Davissons Ltd uses a soft close for its auctions, which means no lot closes until everyone is done bidding. Every time a bid is placed within the final 40 seconds of a lot closing, the timer is reset to 40 seconds. This continues until no bids are placed for 40 seconds, at which point the lot closes. There will never be more than one lot closing at once, as the next lot is not allowed to begin closing until the current lot closes.

To bid: enter your maximum bid into the text box, and click submit. Only round dollar amounts are accepted. You are then required to confirm your bid. Once confirmed, all bids are final. If you have placed a bid in error you must call during office hours and speak to one of us. If you are the current high bidder then it will display “Current High Bidder: YOU” If you are not the high bidder, or if you are not logged in, then the current high bidder will be identified by their 5 digit client ID. You may find your client ID under the Account tab.

Bids are reduced automatically, so feel free to bid your maximum and it will be reduced to one increment over the current high bid. If a user places a bid that is higher than necessary to be the current high bidder on the lot, the displayed bid will reflect one advance over the next lower bid. For example, if a user "A" places a bid of $120 on a lot which opens at $100, "A" will be winning that lot at $100. If another user "B" bids $110, the winning bidder will be "A" at $120, one advance over the supporting bid of $110. If user "B" in this example instead placed a bid at $120, then user "A" will still be winning at $120 because they placed that maximum bid value first.

Increments can be viewed here. The next bid will always be on the next increment, so if a user is winning a lot at $100, or $105, or $109, the next bid will still always be $110.

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