Superb Engraving

CNG 90, Lot: 621. Estimate $5000. Sold for $8000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SATRAPS of CARIA. Maussolos. Circa 377/6-353/2 BC. AR Tetradrachm (24mm, 15.19 g, 12h). Halikarnassos mint. Head of Apollo facing slightly right, wearing laurel wreath, drapery around neck / MAYΣΣΩΛΛO, Zeus Labraundos standing right. Traité II 91; SNG Kayhan 872 var. (small letter on rev.); SNG von Aulock 2359 var. (same); SNG Copenhagen 590. EF, attractively toned, minor double strike on reverse. Exceptionally artistic style, perhaps the finest of the series.

Ex Triton VIII (11 January 2005), lot 467.

The exceptionally refined style of this piece suggests it may have been struck from the earliest dies in the series, when a master engraver would have developed the types that were copied by later mint workers.