Extremely Rare Karne Mint

Sale: CNG 82, Lot: 440. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 September 2009.  Sold For $5250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’. 336-323 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.14 g, 1h). Karne mint. Struck circa 324-320 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; KA monogram in left field. Price 3430 (same dies as illustration of 3430a). Good VF. Extremely rare mint.

The town of Karne, a small neighbor of Arados, struck two issues during the time of Alexander, both with this civic KA monogram in the left field. The two issues are differentiated by the presence of the royal title, but also the overall style of the engraving. The issues without the royal title (Price 3429) have a distinct style that parallel’s Duyrat’s Group I-III at Arados, circa 332-324 BC, but is most likely a parallel to Group III, which has the civic monogram of Arados as a control mark. The Karne issues with the title (Price 3430) have a style directly paralleling Duyrat’s large Group IV, circa 324-320 BC. Karne also had two issues in the later 3rd century, with dates corresponding to 225/4 BC, also paralleling similar issues at Arados. All of these issues are extremely rare. Only two Karne tetradrachms have been offered at auction in the past decade. Lanz 138 (2007), lot 306, was an example from the first issue that realized 3600 euro (over 5000 USD at the time), while the Pittman Collection coin (CNG 66 [2004], lot 247), of the same type and condition as the present piece, had a hammer of 2300 USD.