Unusual Legend Orientation – Second Known

CNG 93, Lot: 123. Estimate $7500. Sold for $10033. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of THRACE. Lysimachos. 305-281 BC. AV Stater (17mm, 8.50 g, 12h). Ephesos mint. Struck circa 294-287 BC. Diademed head of the deified Alexander right, with horn of Ammon / [BAΣIΛEΩΣ] ΛYΣIMAXOY, Athena Nikephoros seated left, left arm resting on shield, transverse spear in background; monogram to inner left, A on throne. Thompson –; Müller 495; N. Sicurella, “Gold stater of Lysimachus revisited,” The Celator 13/1 (January 1999), p. 35, fig. 1 = N. Sicurella, “Unpublished Gold Stater of Lysimachus,” SAN Journal XIV/2 (Summer 1983), p. 28 (this coin); BM Reg. no. BNK,G.216 (same dies). EF, lustrous, struck from worn reverse die, slight die shift on reverse. Extremely rare, one of two known (the other in the BM).

Ex Stack’s (17 Sept. 1980), lot 60.

The attribution of this coin to Ephesos is based upon the appearance of the A control on the throne on various Ephesos drachm issues (cf. Thompson 173–4), the obverses of which also have a remarkably similar style to this stater. M.J. Price also thought this stater issue was related to these Ephesian drachms (see N. Sicurella, op cit., SAN Journal XIV/2). There is a possibility that there also was an issue of drachms with only the A control mark--such a piece is described as no. 402 in the collection of Abbé J.-G.-Honoré Greppo, vicar-general of the diocese of Belley (J. de Witte, Description des médailles et des antiquités du cabinet de M. L’Abbé H. G*** [Paris: Franck, 1856]). Unfortunately, the piece is not illustrated in the publication of the collection, and its present disposition is unknown. Perhaps the most unusual aspect of these staters is the orientation of the legends, which is unique to this issue: the royal title is on the left, and the name of Lysimachos is on the right.