310, Lot: 63. Estimate $500. Sold for $420. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PAPHLAGONIA, Amastris. Circa 285-250 BC. AR Didrachm (22mm, 9.06 g, 12h). Head of Amastris right, wearing mitra decorated with a wreath and star / Aphrodite enthroned left, wearing polos, holding Nike in right hand, scepter in left; myrtle bud to left. SNG BMC Black Sea 1302; SNG Stancomb 731; SNG von Aulock 152; HGC 7, 356. VF, toned, minor marks and porosity.

From the Alex Shubs Collection.

Amastris, a niece of Darios III of Persia, became a pawn in the complex dynastic quarrels that followed the death of Alexander. She had been given as wife to Alexander's general Krateros, but was dismissed when Krateros arranged a marriage for himself with the daughter of Antipater. Amastris then married Dionysos, tyrant of Herakleia, by whom she had three children before his death in 306 BC. In 302 BC she married Lysimachos of Thrace, who soon acquired a more profitable alliance by wedding Arsinoë, the daughter of Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt. Amastris then retired to the territory of Herakleia, where she founded a new city named after herself. She was not destined to find peace, however; in 288 BC her two covetous sons had her drowned and seized her city for themselves.