Extremely Rare Kolophon Mint Tetradrachm

308, Lot: 54. Estimate $150. Sold for $425. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Antigonos I Monophthalmos. As Strategos of Asia, 320-306/5 BC, or King, 306/5-301 BC. AR Tetradrachm (28mm, 16.88 g, 2h). In the name and types of Alexander III. Kolophon mint. Struck circa 310-301 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; KA monogram in left field, crescent below throne. CNG 94, lot 259 var. (symbol below throne). Otherwise unpublished, but cf. Price 1823–4 for AR drachms and hemidrachms of this issue. Near VF, faint deposits. One of two known tetradrachms of this issue from Kolophon.

The Alexander type drachms of Kolophon are among the most common Alexander type coins known. However, there are no known Alexander type tetradrachms from this mint until the time of Lysimachos. Among the other Alexander drachm mints of western Asia Minor, each did strike at least limited issues of tetradrachms, so the appearance of a tetradrachm at Kolophon during its early period of Alexander issues is not unexpected.