Two Unpublished Eastern Tetradrachms

Sale: CNG 75, Lot: 143. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2007.  Sold For $1125. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’. 336-323 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.11 g, 11h). Uncertain mint in the East. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; wreath in left field, A below throne. Unpublished. EF, minor die wear on obverse.

Struck from the same die as lot 144, below.

This and the following coin are most likely local issues imitating the types of Alexander, but adding control marks of local significance. The fabric is eastern in character, as is the style, which is most similar to the early Alexandrine issues of Tarsos and Myriandros (or Issos), both of which are known to have circulated in the east.