Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 420. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PTOLEMAIC KINGS of EGYPT. Ptolemy I Soter. As Satrap, 323-305 BC. AR Tetradrachm (15.64 g, 1h). Obverse die signed by the artist D. Alexandria or Paphos mint. Struck in the name of Alexander III of Macedon, circa 310-305 BC. Diademed head of Alexander right, wearing elephant's skin; small D to right of elephant's ear / Athena Alkidemos advancing right; monogram to left; to right, aphlaston and eagle on thunderbolt. Svoronos 154; Jenkins, Early, Group a; SNG Copenhagen -. VF, toned, light scratches in fields on reverse. Very rare issue with aphlaston. ($500)

The aphlaston also appears on contemporary bronze issues (cf. Svoronos 156) attributed to a possible Ptolemaic mint on Cyprus. Although these satrapal issues are traditionally attributed to the mint at Alexandria, more recent research has questioned this assignment for issues with subsidiary symbols, with most being placed at a possible Ptolemaic mint in Asia Minor (cf. CNG 69, lot 720). The present coin belongs among this group, and the aphlaston symbol, in common with the bronze issue, may indicate an issue from a Ptolemaic mint on Cyprus.