CNG 85, Lot: 297. Estimate $2500. Sold for $7500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’. 336-323 BC. AV Stater (19mm, 8.54 g, 6h). Tyre mint. Struck under Menes. Dated RY 25 of Azemilkos (325/4 BC). Helmeted and draped bust of Athena right, griffin on helmet / Nike standing left, holding wreath and stylis; date below right wing: -|O [above || ||| =]. Price 3261; Newell, Dated 22 (dies I/β - incorrectly listed under year 26); CNG 84, lot 286 (same dies). Near EF, a couple minor die breaks, small nick on edge.

For the reattribution of the Alexander series of Ake to the mint of Tyre, see A. Lemaire, “Le monnayage de Tyr et celui dit d’Akko dans la deuxième moitié du IV siècle avant J.-C.,” RN 1976, and G. Le Rider, Alexander the Great: Coinage, Finances, and Policy (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2007), pp. 125-34.

The CNG 84 coin, from the same dies as the present specimen, is important as it clarifies some aspects of the coinage at Tyre for this period. Newell only located one coin from these dies, in Berlin, but that example had its date off the flan. He placed it under year 26 based on the style of the obverse (Newell p. 45, n. 10), but also probably because of the position of the name of Alexander. In his note 8, he places a coin with missing date under year 25 because all the other examples of that year had the name of Alexander on the left, which was moved to the right on all the examples Newell located for year 26. The CNG 84 coin, from the same dies as the Berlin specimen, has the name on the right, but clearly shows the year 25. Thus, the dies for this coin belong under Newell’s year 25, and it was in that year that the name moved from the one side to the other at Tyre. One other point of correction: in his study, Newell’s numbering for the reverse dies is not continuous, but begins anew at each year. As such, the correct die pairing for this coin, under year 25 (Newell issue 22), would be dies I/γ.