Extremely Rare Early Babylon Drachm

431, Lot: 76. Estimate $300. Sold for $1900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’. 336-323 BC. AR Drachm (16.5mm, 4.28 g, 11h). Babylon mint. Struck under Stamenes or Archon, circa 325/4 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; Φ in left field, M below throne. Price 3580; 3580; Waggoner dies 13/— (unlisted rev. die); CNG E-425, lot 63 (same dies). VF, lightly toned, slight die wear. Extremely rare, one of three known.

This coin is from the sole drachm issue from the first series of Alexander coinage at Babylon, and is apparently the third example known. Waggoner records a single specimen, in the Turin museum (which is the sole example in the ANS photofile). There are no examples in the Pella database, and only the CNG E-425 coin is in CoinArchives.