CNG 85, Lot: 281. Estimate $4000. Sold for $4100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’. 336-323 BC. AV Stater (17mm, 8.59 g, 9h). Tarsos mint. Struck under Balakros or Menes, circa 332/1-327 BC. Helmeted head of Athena right / Nike standing left, holding wreath and stylis; kerykeion below right wing. Price 3458; Newell, Sidon 2 (obv. die H). Superb EF, small nick in field on obverse.

For the reattribution of the early undated Alexander staters of Sidon to the mint of Tarsos, see G. Le Rider, Alexander the Great: Coinage, Finances, and Policy (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2007), pp. 134-9. Balakros and Menes were the first and second satraps, respectively, who oversaw Cilicia under Alexander during the period this issue was struck.