215, Lot: 213. Estimate $400. Sold for $387. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SELEUKID KINGS of SYRIA. Antiochos I Soter. 281-261 BC. AR Tetradrachm (27mm, 16.67 g, 11h). Pergamon mint. Struck under Philetairos in the name of Alexander of Macedon, circa 279-274 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophorus seated left; in left field, helmeted head of Athena right; crescent under throne. SC 307.2 var. (star below throne; same obv. die as coin illustrated). VF, scuff along Herakles’ temple.

Newell hypothesized that this issue of Alexander was minted by Philetairos following the assassination of Seleukos. Philetairos had rebelled several years earlier against Lysimachos, whose widow, Arsinöe, now became his chief rival. Having been placed in charge of protecting a large treasury in Pergamon, Philetairos and other rulers in Asia Minor made a plea to Seleukos to protect them from Arsinöe in an open act of rebellion. However, when Seleukos was assassinated, Philetairos felt it in his best interest to play the neutral party. In need of a circulating coinage, he instituted the classic design of Alexander in an attempt to show his neutrality.