One of Thirteen Known

CNG 102, Lot: 706. Estimate $50000. Sold for $60000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BAKTRIA, Indo-Greek Kingdom. Menander I Soter. Circa 155-130 BC. AV Stater (20mm, 8.57 g, 1h). Draped bust of Athena right, wearing crested helmet adorned with wing; all within bead-and-reel border / Owl standing right on ground line, head facing; A to left; all within bead-and-reel border. Bopearachchi 1A; MIG Type 211a (same obv. die as top example); SNG ANS 682; Boston MFA Supp. 312; Treasures of Ancient Bactria (Miho Museum), 46a (same dies); HGC 12, 494. EF, lightly toned, area of weak strike on obverse at periphery. Extremely rare, one of 13 specimens known.

Unlike his silver and bronze issues, the gold coinage of Menander I Soter is very rare (as is the case with Baktrian gold issues in general). This stater, with the helmeted head of Athena on the obverse and an owl on the reverse, is among the rarest, with a total of 13 specimens known (see below). Mitchiner questioned the authenticity of some of the specimens he recorded, but did not doubt the British Museum specimen, which is struck from the same obverse die as the present coin. Bopearchchi, in a note on the series, repeated Mitchiner’s reservation without further elucidation. S. Hurter, in her review of Le portrait d’Alexandre le Grand by O. Bopearachchi and P. Flandrin in SNR 85 (2006), expressed doubt about a number of the coins in the Miho Museum and suggested that the Miho Menander (which she had not seen) should undergo further examination (pp. 190–1) .

The thirteen examples of this issue are known from at least four obverse and five reverse dies:

1. A/a
a) London, British Museum, inv. 1888,1208.283 [MIG Type 211a (top photo)]

2. A/b
a) Koka, Miho Museum [Treasures of Ancient Bactria 46a]
b) CNG 102, lot 706 (the present example)

3. B/c
a) New York, ANS, inv. 1995.51.100 [SNG ANS 682] b) Bombay, Price of Wales Museum [A.S. Altekar, JNSI 11 (1949), pp. 45–6, pl. I, 2]
c) Private collection

4. C/d
a) New York, ANS, inv. 1997.9.185 b) Oxford, Ashmolean Museum [Haughton Collection 395 (questioned by Mitchiner)]
c) London, British Museum, inv. 1939,0512.1 [R. B. Whitehead, NC 1940, 5 (questioned by Mitchiner)].
d) Private collection [Haughton Collection 396 (questioned by Mitchiner)]
e) Private collection

5. D/e
a) Boston, Museum of Fine Arts [Boston MFA Supp. 312; Haughton Collection 397]

6. Unseen
a) Varanasi, Banaras Hindu University [A.S. Altekar, JNSI 11 (1949), p. 46]