Very Rare Tenedos Mint Lysimachos

Sale: CNG 81, Lot: 258. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009.  Sold For $1100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of THRACE. Lysimachos. 305-281 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.66 g, 1h). Tenedos mint. Civic issue, struck circa 200-150 BC. Diademed head of the deified Alexander right, with horn of Ammon / Athena Nikephoros seated left, left arm resting on shield, spear behind; star and monogram flanking labrys in exergue. M.J. Price, “Greek Coin Hoards in the British Museum” in NC 1969, p. 12, 53 var. (no star); otherwise unpublished. Good VF, a hint of die rust on obverse. An unpublished issue from a very rare mint for Lysimachos.

Coins of Lysimachos from Tenedos are very rare, with only a handful of specimens known. Hoard evidence establishes a date for this issue in the early-mid 2nd century BC. The salient feature of all examples is the presence of a labrys located in the center of the exergue, a symbol which appears on the coinage of Tenedos at least as early as the end of the 6th century BC. A double-bladed ax, the labrys assumed a religious function as far back as the Minoan Period, and may be connected with the later Greek labyrinthos. Plutarch (Mor. 45.2.302a), states that labrys was the Carian word for ax and was associated with the Carian Zeus Labraundos. The janiform head on the obverse of pre-Alexandrine coinage of Tenedos, comprising bearded and beardless heads, reflects the two blades of the ax on the reverse; the labrys would then be the physical embodiment of the dual power of these two divinities. Who these figures may be is a matter of speculation.