The Coinage of Lysimachos

Sale: CNG 81, Lot: 203. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009.  Sold For $1350. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of THRACE. Lysimachos. 305-281 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.99 g, 1h). Lysimacheia mint. Struck circa 297-281 BC. Diademed head of the deified Alexander right, with horn of Ammon / Athena Nikephoros seated left, left arm resting on shield, spear behind; Φ to inner left, monogram below throne. Thompson 10. Good VF.

Though apparently not serving as a major mint, Lysimacheia was founded by Lysimachos as his new capital in 309 BC, and was among the first to issue his coinage. In general, output was fairly consistent throughout Lysimachos’ reign, the only major interruption being caused by an earthquake which severely damaged the city in 287 BC.

The Coinage of Lysimachos

Lysimachos, a Macedonian of great physical strength and fortitude, rose to prominence as a σωματοφύλαξ, or “bodyguard” for Alexander the Great. When Alexander’s territories were parceled out during the settlement at Babylon in 323 BC, Lysimachos was given control of Thrace, the Chersonese, and the intervening Black Sea coast. Unfortunately, much of this territory was no longer under Macedonian control, but was claimed by various Thracian tribes. Although Lysimachos was involved to some extent in the early wars of the Diadochs, most of his early years as satrap were preoccupied with subduing the Thracian tribes, an endeavor that was largely unsuccessful. By the time he assumed the royal title in 306/5 BC, his kingdom consisted of little more than the southern portions of Thrace. While this territory included a few already active mints, such as Ainos and Byzantion, Lysimachos was forced to depend on his ally Kassander, the king of Macedon, for coinage, as the sources of bullion were under the control of his enemies.

This situation changed in 302 BC, when Lysimachos raised an army at the urging of Kassander and invaded Asia Minor, territory which Antigonos I Monophthalmos controlled, and whose son, Demetrios I Poliorketes, was threatening Kassander’s southern flank in Thessaly. Lysimachos quickly captured much of the Hellespont, and he penetrated as far as Lydia. This territory was rich with both bullion and mint cities, including Alexandria Troas, Ephesos, Lampsakos, Magnesia, and Sardis. Lysimachos used these mints to begin striking coinage on his behalf, while at the same time, he apparently sent bullion back to Thrace, where Lysimacheia and Sestos also began to produce coinage for him. These mints initially struck coins of Alexander type for Lysimachos, but later changed to the new Lysimachos type in 297 BC.

After Lysimachos and Seleukos I defeated the Antigonids at Ipsos in 301 BC, most of western Asia Minor passed to Lysimachos. He now held some of the most prosperous cities in the Aegean, and soon most of the well-established mints were striking coinage in his name. Many of these same mints were required to pay large sums of tribute in order to fund further campaigns of expansion. One such object of expansion was Macedon, the untimate goal of all the Diodochs. Since the death of Kassander in 298 BC, it had fallen into chaos and was eventually captured by Demetrios, who was, in turn, driven out by the joint invasion of Lysimachos and Pyrrhos in 288 BC. Initially, Macedon was split between the two, with Lysimachos taking the eastern half and its mint of Amphipolis. By 285 BC, when Lysimachos also obtained the western half from Pyrrhos, Pella also began producing coinage for Lysimachos. His successes, however, were short-lived. Beginning in 284 BC with the murder of his step-sons, Lysimachos became involved in a treacherous game of political and dynastic intrigue. As a result, revolt broke out among the Asian cities under his control, and Seleukos I launched an invasion against him. At the battle of Korupedion in 281 BC, Lysimachos was killed, and his kingdom was subsumed into the Seleukid empire. Ptolemy Keraunos, however, siezed Lysimachos’ European territories after he murdered Seleukos I later that year.

Edward T. Newell’s study of Lysimachos’ lifetime issues arranged them according to the territorial expansion of his kingdom. Unfortunately, Newell died before completing his study, and conseqently many issues are missing from Margaret Thompson’s survey of his unfinished work. The many ‘unpublished’ coins that have appeared over the