196, Lot: 15. Estimate $300. Sold for $398. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Perseus. 179-168 BC. AR Drachm (4.20 g, 11h). Pella mint; Zoilos, mintmaster. Struck circa 178-174 BC. Diademed head right / Club; monogram above, two monograms below; all within oak wreath, star to outer left. Cf. Mamroth, Perseus 14y; SNG München -; SNG Alpha Bank -; Boston MFA 723 (same dies); Gulbenkian 888 = Jameson 2455 (same dies). VF, toned, short flan crack, mark on cheek and above eye. Very rare denomination.

Ex Robert A. Weimer Collection (Classical Numismatic Group 72, 14 June 2006), lot 519.

In the coinage of the Antigonid kings of Macedon, drachms are a much rarer denomination than tetradrachms, and those of Perseus are the rarest. His earliest issues follow the form established by his predecessor and father, Philip V. The obverse has his portrait, and is of the usual high quality of the middle Hellenistic period. The reverse has the club of Herakles, the patron of the Macedonian kings, surrounded by the royal title and three monograms, all of which are enclosed within a laurel wreath with another control symbol beside the wreath ties. The three monograms are apparently mint officials, with the upper monogram belonging to the mint master, and the lower two being of unknown persons. It is known the Zo- mint master for this issue is the same mint master of Philip V, who also signed his full name below the portraits on the first issue of Perseus (c. 179-178 BC).