Damascene Coinage from the J.S. Wagner Collection

341, Lot: 1. Estimate $300. Sold for $650. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SYRIA, Coele-Syria. Damascus. Alexander III of Macedon. 336-323 BC. AR Tetradrachm (26mm, 17.22 g, 12h). Struck circa 330-323 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; in left field, forepart of ram right; pellet between struts of throne, mint signature ΔA below. Price 3203b. Good VF, toned.

CNG is pleased to present selections of Damascene coinage from the J.S. Wagner Collection. Damascus is one of the oldest continually occupied cities in the world and, as such, presents certain challenges in reconstructing its rich and varied history. The Greco-Roman phase of the city, largely buried under centuries of later strata, is not easily accessible, and so its coinage offers important clues about the civic and religious life of Damascus during the period. With that said, it is unfortunate that our understanding of the Roman phase of the mint’s output has advanced little since the publication of the still-standard catalog: Louis Félicien Joseph Caignart de Saulcy’s 1874 work Numismatique de la Terre Sainte, a highly important study at the time but one riddled with errors. The current offering is the first substantial Damascene collection to come up at auction since Dix Noonan Webb’s sale A6 (29 September 2008), when 76 coins from an anonymous collector were presented, and between the two sales a small number of unpublished issues have turned up. That catalog is occasionally cited below when types do not appear in the standard works.

Collectors may notice a conspicuous absence of Seleucid and Nabataean issues of Damascus, which were represented in the collection but were previously offered alongside other coins of these kingdoms.