Unpublished Late Civic Alexander

247, Lot: 135. Estimate $200. Sold for $650. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Magnesia ad Maeandrum. Circa 225-200 BC. AR Drachm (20mm, 4.17 g, 12h). In the name and types of Alexander III. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; two monograms in left field, maeander pattern in exergue. Price 2045 var. (lower monogram). VF, toned, minor doubling on reverse. Unpublished variety of an extremely rare late civic Alexander type drachm.

This drachm is a new variety for this late series of civic Alexanders from the mint of Magnesia. Price catalogs a tetradrachm and a drachm with this upper monogram, presumably the primary control mark. Interestingly, this coin was struck from the same obverse die as the Burgan piece cited for Price 2043A, which has two different monograms in is field. Although Magnesia served as one of the primary drachm mints for Alexanders in the late 4th-early 3rd century BC, by the late 3rd century, the mint produced Alexander tetradrachms almost exclusively; only two drachm issues are recorded by Price, represented by three coins, in contrast to 17 issues of tetradrachms (note that Price 2037 is actually a tetradrachm, not drachm, issue). As such, this coin represents a new drachm issue, and brings the total drachms known for the period to four.