Interesting Portrait Style

352, Lot: 49. Estimate $300. Sold for $425. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of THRACE, Macedonian. Lysimachos. 305-281 BC. AR Tetradrachm (30mm, 17.13 g, 5h). Uncertain mint. Struck early 3rd century BC. Diademed head of the deified Alexander right, with horn of Ammon / Athena Nikephoros seated left, left arm resting on shield, spear behind; monogram (secondary control) to inner left, monogram (primary control) to outer right. Thompson –; Müller 481 var. (inner left monogram); Triton XII, lot 151 var. (secondary control; same obv. die); Giessener Münzhandlung 92, lot 92 var. (same; same obv. die); CNG 85, lot 262 (same dies). VF, toned, light marks and scratches.

From our description for CNG 85, lot 262: The appearance of this coin clarifies that the monogram to the outer right is the primary control mark for the series within which this issue belongs, as the Triton and Gorny coins, struck from the same obverse die, also have this monogram, but accompanied by a different secondary control (Δ). This primary control is also used for a series of the Alexander type at Amphipolis early in the reign of Antigonos II Gonatas (cf. Price 624, 626, and 628-31 [attributed to Pella by Price, but more likely Amphipolis, per Mathisen]). While an attribution to Amphipolis during the period of upheaval before the accession of Gonatas is reasonable, another coin has also surfaced with a nearly identical portrait style, but with a lion’s head control mark (Rauch 73, lot 217), which is certainly not from Amphipolis.