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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 
196, Lot: 60. Estimate $200.
Sold for $490. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PERSIA, Alexandrine Empire. Uncertain satraps of Babylon. Circa 328-311 BC. AR 1/3 Stater (13mm, 3.99 g, 12h). Babylon mint. Baal seated left, holding scepter propped on knee / Lion advancing left; torch to left, TI above. Unpublished, but cf. Nicolet-Pierre 3 and 18 (staters with torch). VF, darkly toned, slight roughness. Unpublished variety of a rare denomination for series.


Nicolet-Pierre's article on the issues of the Babylon mint is the only treatment of the pre-Seleukid Baal-lion coinage issued there. The prototype for these coins were the large issues of the satrap Mazaios at Tarsos in Cilicia with Baal on the obverse and a lion attacking a stag on the reverse. Mazaios was later the satrap of Babylon under Darios III, and was confirmed in office by Alexander III 'the Great' even though the two were recent adversaries. Nicolet-Pierre has demonstrated that the earliest issues were in the name of Mazaios, datable to the period from circa 331-328 BC. The bulk of the series, though, are not struck in Mazaios' name, but had a variety of symbols, letters, monograms, or a combination of these. Nicolet-Pierre places all of these before 328 BC, but two facts strongly argue against this. First, a number of the issues contain symbol and letter combinations directly corresponding to Alexandrine issues in the name of Alexander III or Philip III, the latter of which had to be from between 323-317 BC. Second, once Seleukos I Nikator established his control over Babylon, he continued the series, ostensibly as a local coinage, with the addition of an anchor symbol on the reverese, along with a variety of symbols or letters (see SC). Moreover, fact that control marks also link Seleukos' Baal-Lion and Alexandrine issues at Babylon confirms that the two separate series were struck concurrently at various times. It seems likely therefore that the whole series can be divided into three groups. Those in the name of Mazaios are the earliest, circa 331-328 BC, followed by those without the satrap's name or Seleukid anchor, circa 328-311 BC, and Seleukos' issues form the final group, circa 311-300 BC. The second group, which the present coin is from, was likely not struck continuously, as evidenced by the fact that a number of the Alexandrine and Baal/Lion issues do not share control marks. This particular coin, with torch and TI, is unrecorded in any denomination, but Nicolet-Pierre's issues 3 and 18 both have a torch to the left of the lion, as here.