Rare ‘Pedigree’ Tetradrachm

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 358. Estimate $15000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $16000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BAKTRIA, Greco-Baktrian Kingdom. Agathokles. Circa 185-180 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.67 g, 12h). ‘Pedigree’ commemorative of Alexander III of Macedon. ALEXANDROU TOU FILIPPOU, head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / BASILEUONTOS DIKAIOU AGAQOKLEOUS, Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; monogram to inner left. Bopearachchi Série 12B; Bopearachchi & Rahman 163 (same dies); SNG ANS -; MIG type 142 var. (unlisted monogram); Triton VIII, lot 633 (same dies). VF, toned, minor porosity. Extremely rare.

The "pedigree" coins issued by Agathokles copy the coin types of his predecessors, with the predecessor's name and cult epithet on the obverse, and Agathokles' name and titles on the reverse. Agathokles' intent was clearly to advertise the line of succession from Alexander the Great to himself, presumably as an aspect of his civil war propaganda. The commemorative coins in the name of Alexander the Great are of particular importance to the interpretation of this series, because the first specimen, published in 1881, definitively disproved earlier speculations that all the kings were contemporaries (A. von Sallet, "Alexander der Grosse als Gründer der baktrischen-indischen Reiche," ZfN VIII [1881], pp. 279-80). It is perhaps significant that Alexander alone, of all the kings portrayed in this series, does not have a cult epithet but is merely characterized as "the son of Philip."