Confirming Price’s Placement

Sale: CNG 78, Lot: 404. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 May 2008.  Sold For $1400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’. 336-323 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.16 g, 3h). Tarsos mint. Struck circa 323 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; in left field, dolphin upward; Θ below throne. Price 3035 corr. = Akçakale 47 corr. (same obv. die; symbol); Newell, Tarsos -. EF. Very rare issue, possibly the second known.

Price cited Akçakale 47 as the sole example for this issue, and its off-center strike prevented an accurate reading of its left field control. The present coin, struck from the same obverse die as the Akçakale specimen, clearly shows that the left field control is a dolphin. Price placed this issue at the end of a series that he dated circa 327-323 BC. All of the other tetradrachms of this series have a plow symbol on their reverse, while the following series, dated 323-317 BC, have a Nike. Regardless, Price’s placement of the issue appears correct. The presence of the royal title suggests a date after 323 BC, and the style of the coin, particularly the obverse, is most similar to the latest plow and earliest Nike issues. At the same time, the style and fabric of the coin, as well as its presence in the Akçakale hoard, make a later placement, after the Nike series in 317 BC, unlikely. Thus, this coin most likely belongs between the two large groups, circa 323 BC, or shortly thereafter.