Unprecedented Style

311, Lot: 554. Estimate $2000. Sold for $6500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’. 336-323 BC. AV Stater (18mm, 8.56 g, 2h). Uncertain mint. Possibly posthumous. Helmeted head of Athena right / Nike standing left, holding wreath and stylis; uncertain control mark (O?) in left field. Unpublished. Near EF, underlying luster, minor double strike on reverse.

Although the control mark is partially off the flan, and affected by the double strike, the most likely reading is that it is an omicron. No gold issues are known with such a control, and none of the silver with an omicron have it as a sole control mark as it would be on this stater. Usually, one can be guided to a likely attribution in such cases by looking at the style of the piece. The reverse is unquestionably common in its composition of Nike, and thus unhelpful in indicating a mint of origin. The obverse style, though, is quite anomalous: the hair of Athena is tied together in a single plait, the crest emanates from a device composed of three pellets between two bars, the necklace is composed of a solid line from which hang seven pendants, and the form of the serpent is unusual. While some of these traits are found individually on a few issues, the totality of the style is completely foreign to all published staters, such that it is not possible to attribute this piece to any particular mint.