Sale: CNG 67, Lot: 629. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 September 2004.  Sold For $715. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PAPHLAGONIA, Amastris. Circa 300-288 BC. AR Didrachm (9.76 gm). Struck in the name of Queen Amastris. Head of Amastris right, wearing Persian headdress with wreath; bow in bowcase behind /BASILISSHS AMASTRIOS, Aphrodite seated left, holding Eros, who crowns her; sceptre leaning against throne. Waddington, RG pg. 135, 1; SNG BM Black Sea 1297; SNG Copenhagen Supp. 288. VF, toned. ($500)

Amastris, a niece of Darios III of Persia, became a pawn in the complex dynastic quarrels that followed the death of Alexander. She had been given as wife to Alexander's general Krateros, but was dismissed when Krateros arranged a marriage for himself with the daughter of Antipater. Amastris then married Dionysos, tyrant of Herakleia, by whom she had three children before his death in 306 BC. In 302 BC she married Lysimachos of Thrace, who soon acquired a more profitable alliance by wedding Arsinoë, the daughter of Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt. Amastris then retired to the territory of Herakleia, where she founded a new city named after herself. She was not destined to find peace, however; in 288 BC her two covetous sons had her drowned and seized her city for themselves.