Features of Alexander the Great

CNG 109, Lot: 95. Estimate $15000. Sold for $17000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Philip III Arrhidaios. 323-317 BC. AV Stater (18mm, 8.54 g, 12h). In the types of Philip II. Kolophon mint. Struck under Menander or Kleitos, circa 322-319 BC. Head of Apollo right, with the features of Alexander III, wearing laurel wreath / ΦIΛIΠΠOY, charioteer, holding kentron in right hand, reins in left, driving fast biga right; tripod below. Thompson, Philip 12 = Jameson 978 = Kunstfreund 232 = Gillet 785 (same obv. die); Le Rider pl. 90, 16 and pl. 93, 26; SNG ANS 309; SNG Alpha Bank 260 = Alpha Bank, Hellenic 72 = Alpha Bank, Macedonia 26 = Alpha Bank, Alexander 57 (same dies); SNG Ashmolean 2456; Kraay & Hirmer 565. Superb EF, underlying luster, some smoothing and cleaning marks on the face (thus not suitable for NGC encapsulation), slight nick behind head. Struck from fresh dies.

Ex Classical Numismatic Group 76 (12 September 2007), lot 281, where it hammered for $15,000; Triton X (9 January 2007), lot 144.

This beautiful gold stater belongs to the period following the death of Alexander the Great when his half-brother, Philip III Arrhidaios, was the nominal head of state together with the conqueror's infant son by Roxane, Alexander IV. The gem-like delicacy of the engraving of these extraordinary dies singles this issue out as belonging to one of the mints of the Ionian coastal region of western Asia Minor, an area which, of course, was not controlled by the Macedonian monarchy in the time of Philip II. Kolophon is the city to which it is tentatively attributed, the tripod symbol linking it to an issue in the name of Philip III (cf. Price P41).