Unique Tetradrachm

Triton XX, Lot: 376. Estimate $30000. Sold for $65000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PERSIA, Achaemenid Empire. temp. Artaxerxes III to Darios III. Circa 350-333 BC. AR Tetradrachm (24.5mm, 15.13 g, 8h). Chian standard. Halikarnassos mint(?). Persian king, wearing kidaris and kandys, in kneeling-running stance right, holding spear in right hand, bow in left / Prow of galley right, with hornlike akrostolion, fighting platform decorated with labrys, proembolon (upper battering ram) decorated with dolphin and an embolom (principal three pronged battering ram); wave pattern below; to right, small dolphin diagonally downward right. Unpublished; for the same types on a contemporary gold daric, cf. Konuk, Coin M53 = Konuk, Influences, pl. XXX, 24 = de Luynes 2819 = Babelon, Perses 124 = Traite II 36, pl. LXXXVII, 24 = J. P. Six, “Monnaies grecques, inédites et incertaines” in NC 1890, p. 241, 1, pl. 17, 13. EF, toned. Perfectly centered on a broad flan. Unique.

This remarkable tetradrachm almost certainly is a contemporary issue of the famous unique gold daric in the Paris cabinet employing the same types. That piece has had considerable study from various numismatists, most recently by Koray Konuk, who definitively placed the issue in Caria. In his 1990 article, he originally dated the issue to the time of Darios III, but recently he has revised his opinion and dated the daric to 450-400 BC, based on the similarity of the obverse style to the Carradice Type IIIb A/B darics struck in Sardes. The appearance of the present associated tetradrachm, though, requires a change to the chronology, as the tetradrachm must be contemporary with the famous Ionian map tetradrachms (see previous lot), which are dated to Circa 350-333 BC. So, downdating this prow issue to the last decades of the Persian Empire is reasonable.

As this issue must have been struck in Caria, within the proposed dates there are only two events possible for this issue. In 345 BC, the Persian king, Artaxerxes III, directed the Carian satrap Hidrieus to put down a revolt in Cyprus that had erupted in the aftermath of the Persian defeat in Egypt. To accomplish his task, Hidrieus assembled a fleet of 40 triremes and an army of around 8,000 mercenaries. This would require a large sum of money, and the naval reference of this issue certainly fits the occasion. The other event is the Persian war against Alexander, and the naval campaign undertaken by Memnon of Rhodes, who is sometimes credited with striking the Ionian map issue for this purpose. This event, though, seems less likely as the occasion for the prow coinage, since Memnon did not undertake his Aegean strategy until after he and Orontobates, the satrap of Caria at that time, fled the citadel of Halikarnassos, which was subsequently beseiged by the Macedonians. Although Orontobates left a garrison that held out for some time, it is improbable that Memnon used the mint there, or elsewhere in Caria for that matter, to produce coinage to pay for his expenses.

The question, however, is why would Hidrieus not use his own coinage to accomplish his task, rather than an anonymous Persian issue without reference to himself? Perhaps the answer lies within the task itself—did the Persian king provide the silver from his own reserves and thereby required Persian types? Or, did the mercenaries, including those manning the ships, demand a form of payment in a coinage that employed a general Persian type rather than a local Carian one? It is an interesting question to which we currently lack an answer. Regardless, this is a remarkable coinage, and certainly one struck for an historical event of some importance. In the end, Hidrieus was successful in his endeavor; the revolt in Cyprus was put down, and the island was restored to Persian control. Unfortunately for Hidrieus, he died almost immediately thereafter, perhaps from a disease contracted in the campaign.