Sale: Nomos 7, Lot: 124. Estimate CHF5000.  Closing Date: Tuesday, 14 May 2013.  Sold For CHF4250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PERGAMON. Eumenes I. 263-241 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 29mm, 17.18 g 1), 263-255/250. Diademed head of Philetairos to right. Rev. ΦΙΛΕΤΑΙΡΟΥ Athena seated left on backless throne;, holding, by the edge with her right hand, a shield adorned with a gorgoneion, with her spear held downwards over her left shoulder and resting her left elbow on a sphinx; to left, below her arm, ivy leaf; on the throne, Α; to right, bow. SNG France 1606-1609. Westermark Group II. Toned steel gray and with a powerful and dramatic portrait struck in high relief. Some very minor marks, otherwise, good extremely fine.

From a collection in the United States.

The portraits of Philetairos on the coinage of Pergamon were almost brutally honest in their portrayal of the powerful eunuch who, through his nephew Eumenes I, was the founder of the Pergamine kingdom. This coin, struck relatively soon after the death of Philetairos, is particularly realistic.