New Stater Variety

Sale: CNG 81, Lot: 334. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009.  Sold For $2100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’. 336-323 BC. AV Stater. Abydos mint. Struck under Antigonos I Monophthalmos. circa 310-301 BC. Helmeted head of Athena right / Nike standing right; monogram to left, griffin’s head below left wing, caduceus to right. Cf. Price 1558 (same obv. die as illustration, different markings); cf. ADM II, Series XIX, 372c (same obv. die, different markings). Near EF, underlying luster. In NGC slab, graded AU53. Unpublished with these symbols.

See Price 1541-7 and ADM II, Series XV, 278-290, for a series of drachms with caduceus to outer right and a monogram similar to the one on the present stater. Thompson notes on ADM II p. 56, n. 29, that the monogram of this series has many variations. It is likely that this stater belongs within this series. If this attribution is correct, the fact that the obverse die is linked to staters of ADM II, Series XIX, gives further evidence to Price’s contention that these series were not struck annually as Thompson theorized.