Unusual Symbol

Sale: CNG 82, Lot: 360. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 September 2009.  Sold For $480. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of THRACE. Lysimachos. 305-281 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.96 g, 5h). Kios mint. Struck 288/7-282/1 BC. Diademed head of the deified Alexander right, with horn of Ammon / Athena Nikephoros seated left, left arm resting on shield, spear behind; to inner left, labrys supported by two columns. Thompson -; Müller -; Meydancikkale 2726 var. (additional control marks). VF. Extremely rare issue.

This control mark is only known on the Meydancikkale specimen, where it is accompanied by a small Δ, as well as a club in the exergue. Although that specimen was marked as being from an uncertain mint, both of these coins can be attributed to Kios. The horizontal club is a standard exergual mark on some issues of Kios (Thompson 183-5), and the obverse die used on the present coin must have been engraved by the same celator who made the die used on the plate coin of Thompson 184 and G.K. Jenkins, “A Hellenistic Hoard from Mesopotamia,” ANSMN XIII (1967), no. 40.