Sale: CNG 78, Lot: 387. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 May 2008.  Sold For $200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’. 336-323 BC. AR Drachm (4.13 g, 11h). Chios mint. Struck circa 290-275 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; in left field, monogram in circle above grape bunch with tendril. Price 2324 var. (monogram); Bauslaugh, Posthumous, obv. die 50 corr. (period of issue). EF, lightly toned, hairline flan crack, slight die shift on obverse.

From Collection C.P.A.

The appearance of this coin corrects a misdating in the Alexander type coinage of Chios. In his die study of these issues, Bauslaugh placed the drachms with obverse die 50 into his Period 2 coinage (Price c. 270-220 BC). Although the drachms lacked the characteristic sphinx control mark of Period 2, he (albeit hesitatingly) placed them there based on their ME monogram, which was also found on tetradrachms that did have the sphinx control. The control marks on the present coin, however, a monogram above grape bunch, certainly belongs to Period 1, suggesting that all the drachms of die 50 should be placed in that period.