CNG 108, Lot: 190. Estimate $500. Sold for $300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Magnesia ad Maeandrum. Circa 225-200 BC. AR Tetradrachm (30mm, 16.94 g, 1h). In the name and types of Alexander III of Macedon. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; monogram in left field; maeander pattern in exergue. Price 2046 var. = BM 1910,1104.51 var. (two monograms, but same obv. die); O. Hoover, “Commerce (“Pamphylia or Cilicia” Hoard), 2000 (CH 10, 292)” in Coin Hoards X (2010), 123 (same dies). Good VF, lightly toned, overstruck on a tetradrachm of Rhodes (Ashton 212). Extremely rare, one of two recorded with this retrograde monogram.

From the Colin E. Pitchfork Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group 57 (4 April 2001), lot 209.

This is a remarkable coin in that it was overstruck on an unlikely undertype, and it also necessitates a total reevaluation of the 3rd century BC civic Alexander coinage at Magnesia. It is clear that this coin was overstruck on a tetradrachm of Rhodes signed by the magistrate Ameinias (Ashton 212); the left portion of the name that is split by the stem of the rose is visible on the reverse, as are portions of the rose and its floral base, above and below the name. What is perplexing is how the Rhodian issue was struck on an Attic weight flan, which is roughly 3-4 grams heavier than the Rhodian standard at that time. Price 2509 is a Rhodian Alexander issue that bears a monogram that R. Ashton thought may resolve to the name Ameinias, and Price thought it possible that the two series, autonomous Rhodian and Alexander type, were struck in parallel. If so, then one could speculate that an Attic standard tetradrachm flan may have been mistakenly struck with dies made for the autonomous Rhodian tetradrachms. However, in his more recent compilation of the Rhodian coinage from 408-190 BC, Ashton placed these coinages in subsequent periods, which would suggest that an unintentional mixing of flans did not occur. In any event, the chronology that Ashton proposes for his series is quite firmly grounded, so his dating of circa 230-205 for the Rhodian civic coinage should be considered for dating the present issue. Price organized the civic Alexanders at Magnesia into logical groups based on hoards as well as a common program of marking. The 3rd century issues are divided into two groups, the earlier characterized by a single monogram in the left field and a maeander pattern in the exergue, while the later group adds a second monogram in the left field. These are dated circa 282-225 BC and circa 225-200 BC, respectively. Having only one monogram, the present coin should fall into the earlier group, especially as there is an issue that has this exact monogram in retrograde (Price 2024). However, this coin is obverse die linked to Price 2046, from the later group. This suggests that the simple arrangement that Price lays out for the 3rd century should be revised, with the present issue being clearly late in the century, since the Rhodian undertype was not struck until circa 230 BC at the earliest.