Portrait of Alexander III

Sale: Triton X, Lot: 144. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 8 January 2007.  Sold For $14000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Philip II. 359-336 BC. AV Stater (8.54 g, 12h). Kolophon mint. Struck under Philip III, circa 323-319 BC. Laureate head of Apollo right, with the features of Alexander III / FILIPPOU, charioteer driving biga right, holding kentron in right hand, reins in left; tripod below horses. Thompson, Philip 12 = Jameson 978 (same obv. die); cf. Le Rider pl. 93, 26; SNG ANS 309. Good VF, underlying luster, light scratch in field on obverse. Struck from fresh dies with exceptional detail.

This beautiful gold stater belongs to the period following the death of Alexander the Great when his half-brother, Philip III Arrhidaios, was the nominal head of state together with the conqueror's infant son by Roxana, Alexander IV. The gem-like delicacy of the engraving of these extraordinary dies singles this issue out as belonging to one of the mints of the Ionian coastal region of western Asia Minor, an area which, of course, was not controlled by the Macedonian monarchy in the time of Philip II. Kolophon is the city to which it is tentatively attributed, the tripod symbol linking it to an issue in the name of Philip III (cf. Price P41). The issue is likely to have been made prior to 319 BC, when the region came under the control of Antigonos I Monophthalmos.