Rare Demetrios Stater

164, Lot: 51. Estimate $1000. Sold for $2101. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Demetrios I Poliorketes. 306-283 BC. AV Stater (19mm, 8.59 g). Amphipolis mint. Struck crica 290-289 BC. Diademed and horned head of Demetrios right / Macedonian horseman cantering right, holding couched spear; monograms behind and between horse's legs. Newell 113. Fine, numerous surface marks, test cut on edge, punch mark on reverse. Rare.

Demetrios' gold coinage consists entirely of Attic-weight staters, issued at first in the name of Alexander, but after about 299 in his own name. Demetrios' proclamation as king of Macedon gave him control of the mints in Amphipolis and Pella, and he inherited the still unexhausted bullion supplies of Macedon. In order to finance further conquests, he began to turn these supplies into currency. This coin was probably struck to finance his planned Aitolian campaign. The obverse shows the portrait of Demetrios adorned with the horns of a bull, the sacred animal of Poseidon. The reverse pays tribute to a traditional Macedonian type which had been used on the silver coinages from Alexander I to Philip II.