Triton XVIII, Lot: 82. Estimate $5000. Sold for $4750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CILICIA, Tarsos. Mazaios. Satrap of Cilicia, 361/0-334 BC. AR Stater (22mm, 10.83 g, 11h). Baaltars seated left, his torso facing, holding lotus-tipped scepter in extended right hand, left hand holding chlamys at his waist; B’LTRZ (in Aramaic) and shield to right / Lion walking left; MZDY (in Aramaic) above, P (in Aramaic) in exergue. Casabonne Series 5, Group A; SNG France –; SNG Levante Supp. 27 var. (nothing in exergue; Myriandros); BMC 62; Sunrise 56 corr. (mint; this coin). EF, a couple edge splits. Very rare issue with letter in exergue on reverse.

From the Sunrise Collection. Ex Leu 83 (6 May 2002), lot 360; Classical Numismatic Group XXX (11 June 1994), lot 181.

The attribution of the walking-lion series of Mazaios had originally been given to the mint of Tarsos, but Newell argued that they more likely were struck at Myriandros in his study of that mint in AJN 53 (1919). Later, J.D. Bing, in AJN 1 (1989), argued for an alternative attribution of the Myriandros coinage to the mint of Issos. While most numismatic works continue to follow Newell, Casabonne’s significant study of Cilicia during the Persian period convincingly returns these coins of Mazaios to the mint of Tarsos (cf. Casabonne, pp. 215–7).