Triton XVIII, Lot: 699. Estimate $1500. Sold for $2250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CILICIA, Tarsos. Balakros. Satrap of Cilicia, 333-323 BC. AR Stater (23mm, 10.89 g, 10h). Baaltars seated left, his torso facing, holding lotus-tipped scepter in extended right hand, left hand holding chlamys at his waist; grain ear and grape bunch to left, ivy leaf and B to right, T below throne / Draped bust of Athena facing slightly left, wearing triple-crested Attic helmet; to left, crested Corinthian helmet right above grape bunch; T to right. Casabonne Series 2, dies D7/R6 (unlisted die combination); SNG France 370 var. (no helmet on rev.); cf. SNG Levante 121/179 (for obv./rev. dies). Near EF, toned, die breaks on obverse. Unpublished variety.

From the Edoardo Levante Collection. Ex Giessener Münzhandlung 62 (20 April 1993), lot 312.

This reverse die was previously known to have been paired with an obverse bearing the mint signature of Issos under the diphos (SNG Levante 179). On the present piece, the reverse, which has the mint signature of Tarsos, is combined with an obverse that also has the Tarsos mint signature. This paring of dies with different mint signatures is not unexpected, though, as it has long been thought that the issues of the various Persian satraps were actually struck at a central mint, likely Tarsos, regardless of the mint signatures they bore.