Sale: CNG 60, Lot: 268. Estimate $4000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 May 2002.  Sold For $4200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MACEDON, Kings of. Philip II. 359-336 BC. AV Stater (8.54 gm). Kolophon mint. Struck 323-319 BC. Laureate head of Apollo right with the features of Alexander the Great / Charioteer driving biga right; tripod below horses. Thompson, "Posthumous Philip II Staters of Asia Minor", in Studia Paulo Naster Oblata I, 12; cf. Le Rider pl. 93, 26; SNG ANS 309; Müller 66. Superb, lustrous, FDC. ($4000)

This beautiful gold stater belongs to the period following the death of Alexander the Great when his half-brother, Philip III Arrhidaeus, was the nominal head of state together with the conqueror's infant son by Roxane, Alexander IV. The gem-like delicacy of the engraving of these extraordinary dies singles this issue out as belonging to one of the mints of the Ionian coastal region of western Asia Minor, an area which, of course, was not controlled by the Macedonian monarchy in the time of Philip II. Kolophon is the city to which it is tentatively attributed, the tripod symbol linking it to an issue in the name of Philip III (cf. Price P41). The issue is likely to have been made prior to 319 BC when the region came under the control of Antigonus.