Sale: Nomos 8, Lot: 97. Estimate CHF125.  Closing Date: Monday, 21 October 2013.  Sold For CHF165. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’. 336-323 BC. Drachm (Silver, 16mm, 4.18 g 1), Abydos, struck uner Philip III, 323-317. Head of Herakles in lion skin headdress to right. Rev. ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ Zeus seated facing on backless throne, his left leg nearly facing front, his head, right arm and right leg to left; holding eagle in his right and long scepter in his left; to left, cornucopiae; below throne, Ξ. Price 1514. Toned. Edge bangs, otherwise, very fine.

From the B. in B. Collection, acquired from F. Sternberg in the 1970s.

The interest this coin has lies in the way the engraver represented Zeus on the reverse: an attempt was made to show a less stiff, more natural pose: Zeus’s legs are slightly spread with the left turned out towards the viewer. This is quite different from the normal profile view one expects.