Sale: Nomos 10, Lot: 20. Estimate CHF1750.  Closing Date: Sunday, 17 May 2015.  Sold For CHF1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of THRACE. Lysimachos, 305-281 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 30mm, 16.98 g 8), Lysimacheia, probably early posthumous, c. 280-270. Diademed head of Alexander the Great to right with horn of Ammon over his ear. Rev. Athena seated left on throne, resting her left elbow on her shield and holding Nike crowning the king�s name in her outstretched right hand; behind, transverse spear; in outer left field, monogram; in inner left, lion�s head to left; in the exergue, K within a linear circle. M�ller -, but cf. 47 for the same monograms but differently arranged. Thopmson -. Nicely toned and attracitve. Extremely fine.

Ex Vinchon, 14 March 1989, 98.

The reverses of the tetradrachm coinage of Lysimachos from Lysimacheia have one rather interesting particularity: Athena�s spear very seldom has a point! Normally she seems to be just holding a long pole, as if she were resting after having competed in the pole vault in some divine version of the Olympics. Or is it possible that the Thracian die cutters thought giving Athena a pointed spear might make her too dangerous?