Previously Attributed to Alexander II
Very Rare Issue

334, Lot: 14. Estimate $100. Sold for $950. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Philip III Arrhidaios. 323-317 BC. Æ Unit (18mm, 5.14 g, 12h). Struck in the name of Alexander III. Uncertain mint in Macedon. Struck under Antipater or Polyperchon. Youthful head of Apollo right, wearing tainia / Rider on horse prancing left; thunderbolt below. Price 371 corr. (denomination, same obv. die as illustration); AMNG III/2, p. 161, 1 (Alexander II; same obv. die as illustration). Good VF, dark green patina. Very rare.

From the RAJ Collection. Ex Gemini VII (9 January 2011), lot 241 (attributed to Alexander II); Classical Numismatic Group 78 (14 May 2008), lot 358.

Ulla Westermark, in her article on the early Macedonian regal coinage (in Kraay-Mørkholm Essays) noted two series of bronze coins with similar obverse and reverse types that had been previously identified as issues of Alexander II. Both are identified by the distinctive Aeolic Greek genitive form of the legend, AΛEΞANΔPO, which is normally used on Macedonian coins down to Philip II. The first series has a free horse prancing right, the legend is dispersed around the horse, and there are no control marks. In contrast, the second series, to which the present coin belongs, has a horse-with-rider prancing left or right, the legend is concentrated in the field above the horse, and there is a control mark on the reverse. Both series also have a peculiar style for the obverse portrait of Apollo wearing a tainia, but only the first type has an additional mark, a small Δ, below Apollo's chin, which appears to be an artist's signature.

Based on the legend form and the fine style Apollo portrait, both Gaebler and Imhoof-Blumer placed these two series during the reign of Alexander II, although other scholars, such as Head, Naster, and Grose, disagreed. Westermark took a fresh look at the evidence. She notes that the attribution of the first series to Alexander II was certain, based on a number of bronze issues of Perdikkas III that were clearly overstruck on coins of the that series (cf. Westermark, pl. LXX, 41-2). There are no such overstrikes for the second type, which Westermark strongly doubted were issues of Alexander II, also noting that "the [Aeolic Greek] genitive is by no means unknown for Alexander III."

Other characteristics also support the attribution of the second type to Alexander III. While Westermark points out the exquisite style of the head of Apollo on the first series, she does not see such a refined style on the second. The positioning of the letters in the legend also suggests that the two types belong to separate periods. The spread-out legend on the first type is typical of earlier Macedonian regal coins, while the concentrated fashion of the second is typical of later issues. Similarly, the reverse types in general, a riderless horse and mounted horse, also correspond to earlier and later types, respectively. Finally, the addition of the control mark on the reverse of the second type also suggests a later issue.

In his magisterial work on the coinage in the name of Alexander III, Martin Price not only concurred with Westermark's analysis that the second series was a later than Alexander II, but, noting the presence of an example in the Drama hoard, concluded that it was actually an issue struck under Philip III. Nevertheless, he also noted that it was an "exceptional issue" among the Alexander type bronze (p. 32, n. 4).