Sale: CNG 67, Lot: 462. Estimate $600.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 September 2004.  Sold For $600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Antigonos II Gonatas. 277-239 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.02 gm). Amphipolis mint. Struck after 271/0 BC. Horned head of Pan left in the center of a Macedonian shield, wearing goat skin, lagobolon over shoulder; shield decorated with seven eight-pointed stars within double crescents / Athena Alkidemos walking left, brandishing thunderbolt and holding shield; shield decorated with aegis; monogram to inner left. Touratsoglou -; AMNG III 3 (for type); SNG Alpha Bank -; cf. Mathison pg. 111; cf. Merker, "The Silver Coinage of Antigonos Gonatas and Antigonos Doson," ANSMN IX (1960), pg. 46. VF, recently cleaned, light die rust on reverse. Extremely rare issue. ($600)

These Pan/Athena type tetradrachms of Antigonos typically have helmet-monogram control markings, with the helmet to the inner left, and monogram to the inner right (Mathison, pg. 111). Mathison notes only four coins with a monogram to the inner right and nothing to the inner left (ibid., note 48), comprising three different monograms, one of which is the specimen noted by Merker. Unlike Merker, Mathison doubts that these were engravers' errors, and posits that they are earlier dies that were engraved while the official denoted by the helmet was still involved with Antigonos' Alexander-type coinage.