IONIA, Magnesia ad Maeandrum. Mid 140s BC. AR Tetradrachm (30mm, 16.89 g, 10h). Stephanophoric type. Euphemos, son of Pausanios, "magistrate”. Near EF.

CNG Feature Auction 132
Lot: 415. Estimated: $ 1 000

Greek, Coin-in-Hand Video, Silver

Sold For $ 2 500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

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IONIA, Magnesia ad Maeandrum. Mid 140s BC. AR Tetradrachm (30mm, 16.89 g, 10h). Stephanophoric type. Euphemos, son of Pausanios, "magistrate”. Diademed and draped bust of Artemis right, bow and quiver over shoulder / Apollo standing left, resting on tall tripod to right, holding branch tied with fillet; maeander pattern below; all within laurel wreath. Ellis-Evans, Wreathed, dies 8/EP4 (this coin cited); Jones dies 21/c. Iridescent toning. Near EF.

From the Thomas Palmer Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group inventory 250193 (December 2002); Morton & Eden 2 (13 November 2002), lot 530; Morton & Eden 1 (18 April 2002), lot 24; Numismatic Fine Arts XXIII (14 December 1989), lot 579.

Magnesia was founded on the banks of the Lekathos, a tributary of the Meander river, in southwestern Ionia during the 700s BC by a tribe from Thessaly known as the Magnetes. The local farmland was rich and the city soon grew enough in prosperity to challenge nearby Ephesos. Sometime between 726 and 660 BC, the Cimmerians swept into the region, destroyed Magesia and enslaved the original populace; however the site was rebuilt within a few years by colonists from Miletos and Ephesos, who retained the original name. Magnesia came under Persian control in the 540s BC and was given by King Artaxerxes I to the Athenian exile Themistocles to govern from 470 BC to his death 11 years later. Themisticles struck the first coin attributed to Magnesia, a didrachm, now extremely rare, in the 460s BC. During the Hellenistic period, Magnesia came under control of the Pergamene Kingdom, along with nearby Ephesus. In the mid-2nd century BC, Magnesia was among the cities that took part in a revival of classical Greek coinage, issuing large and beautiful stephanophoric ("wreath bearing") silver tetradrachms, the obverse of which bore a lovely head of the city's patron goddess, Artemis, while the reverse depicted her brother Apollo standing atop a meander pattern, representing the winding course of the nearby river. These coins carried the names of a series of magistrates (or, as suggested by Nicholas F. Jones, wealthy civic patrons who financed the coinage), including probably the same Euphemos and Pausanius named on this stunning tetradrachm.

The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 132 lots will be determined at the live online sale that will be held on 18-19 May 2026.

CNG Feature Auction 132 – Session Two – Lot 319-587 will be held Monday afternoon, 18 May 2026 beginning at 2:00 PM ET.

Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.

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