KINGS of PERGAMON. Philetairos. 282-263 BC. AR Tetradrachm (29mm, 17.01 g, 11h). Diademed head right /
FILETAIROU, Athena enthroned left, holding shield with right hand, spear in left arm, left elbow resting on sphinx; ivy leaf above knee, A to inner left, bow to outer right. Westermark Group II (V.X/R.1) = Ward 620 (this coin; Eumenes I); SNG France 1604 (Eumenes I); BMC Mysia 30 (Eumenes I); SNG Copenhagen -; SNG von Aulock 1354; Hunterian pg. 277, 5 (same obverse die; Eumenes I); Meydancikkale 3002. VF, attractively tonede.
Ex John Ward Collection - Metropolitan Museum of Art (Sotheby's, Zurich, 4-5 April 1973), lot 525; Hyman Montagu Collection (Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, 15 March 1897), lot 248
Westermark attributed this issue to Eumenes I. However, a more recent analysis of hoard evidence has indicated that this coinage is actually struck during the lifetime of Philetairos, near the end of his reign, following the limited issue of tetradrachms bearing the portrait of Seleukos I (see A. Davesne & G. Le Rider, Gülnar II. Le trésor de Meydancikkale [Paris, 1989], pp. 334-340).
