Sale: Triton V, Lot: 1351. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 January 2002.  Sold For $3250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

AITOLIAN LEAGUE. Circa 279-260 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.58 gm). Head of Herakles right, wearing lion's skin headdress / AITWLWN, Aitolos seated right on a Macedonian shield which rests on a pile of three Gallic shields, which rest on Gallic karnyx, holding spear in right hand, sword in left; monogram and IH to right. Frederick Sheu, "Coinage Systems of Aetolia," NumChron (1960), monogram 1; Boston MFA Suppl. 90 (same dies); McClean 5401 (same obverse die). Toned, good VF, some peripheral porosity. Rare. ($1500)

From the Robert Schonwalter Collection.

This coin is one of the earliest issues of the Aitolian League. The reverse of this tetradrachm shows Aitolia seated on a pile of shields, an allusion to one of the sculptures dedicated in the temple of Apollo at Delphi to commemorate the repulse of the Gallic invasion of 279 BC. The Macedonian shield upon which Aitolos sits might be an allusion to an Aitolian victory over the Macedonians in 314 BC.