Rare Gold Drachm from the Revolt of Ptolemaios

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 163. Estimate $15000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $12000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EUBOIA, Karystos. Revolt of Ptolemaios. Circa 313 BC. AV Drachm (3.14 g, 7h). Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / KARU, bull recumbent left; trident above, club below. Cf. Melville Jones pp. 28-32; BCD 573 (same dies); BMC 17; SNG Copenhagen -; Jameson 2066. Good VF. A great rarity of Greek gold; 12 known (9 known to Melville Jones with 5 in museums).

Ex Triton VIII (11 January 2005), lot 305; BCD Collection (not in Lanz catalog); Birkler & Waddell II (11 December 1980), lot 147.

During the War of the Diadochoi (315-311 BC), Antigonos I Monophthalmos sent his nephew Ptolemaios to Greece, where he formed an alliance with anti-Macedonian factions in various city-states. Ptolemaios was successful in uniting these factions into a single revolt against Kassander, and effectively wrested most of Greece from Macedonian control. His effort began in Boeotia and Euboia, where this coinage was struck, likely to help finance the anti-Macedonian cause. The actions of Ptolemaios and his mercenaries succeeded in tieing-up Kassander’s forces during this war, and enabled Antigonos to focus his own efforts against the other Diadochoi allied against him.