Sale: Triton V, Lot: 1400. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 January 2002.  Sold For $1700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PAPHLAGONIA, Amastris. Circa 285 BC. AR Didrachm (9.55 gm). Head of Amastris right, wearing mitra with wreath and star / AMASTRIEWN, Aphrodite enthroned left, wearing polos and holding Nike in right hand, sceptre in left; to left, myrtle bud. SNG BMC Black Sea 1302ff; Waddington, Receuil, pg. 136, 5; SNG von Aulock 152; Dewing 2123/2124. Rare. ($2000)

From the Robert Schonwalter Collection. Ex Ars Classica XIV (2 July 1929), lot 298.

Amastris, a niece of Darios of Persia, became a pawn in the complex dynastic quarrels that followed the death of Alexander. She had been given as wife to Alexander's general Krateros, but was dismissed when Krateros arranged a marriage with the daughter of Antipater. She then married Dionysos, tyrant of Herakleia, by whom she had three children before his death in 306 BC. Her next brief marriage in 302 BC was to Lysimachos of Thrace, who soon acquired a more profitable alliance by wedding the daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphos of Egypt. Tiring of the whirl of alliances, Amastris retired to the territory of Herakleia, where she founded a new city named after herself. She was not destined to find peace, however; in 288 BC her two covetous sons had her drowned and seized her city for themselves.