441, Lot: 161. Estimate $200. Sold for $380. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CILICIA, Tarsos. Mazaios. Satrap of Cilicia, 361/0-334 BC. AR Stater (22mm, 10.62 g, 8h). Baal of Tarsos seated left, torso facing, holding scepter surmounted by eagle; [M (in Aramaic) to left], uncertain letter (die break?) below throne / Lion walking left over crescent; star and MZDY (in Aramaic) above. Casabonne Series 5, Group C; SNG BN 434 (Myriandros); SNG Levante 185 var. (contrl marks on obv., Myriandros); CNG E-344, lot 122 (same dies). VF, struck from worn obverse die.

The attribution of the walking-lion series of Mazaios had originally been given to the mint of Tarsos, but Newell argued that they more likely were struck at Myriandros in his study of that mint in AJN 53 (1919). Later, J.D. Bing, in AJN 1 (1989), argued for an alternative attribution of the Myriandros coinage to the mint of Issos. While most numismatic works continue to follow Newell, Casabonne’s significant study of Cilicia during the Persian period convincingly returns these coins of Mazaios to the mint of Tarsos (cf. Casabonne, pp. 215–7).