416, Lot: 34. Estimate $150. Sold for $525. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACE, Mesambria. Circa 275/50-225 BC. AR Tetradrachm (31.5mm, 16.54 g, 12h). In the name and types of Alexander III of Macedon. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; in left field, crested Corinthian helmet right above monogram. Karayotov I – (O11a/R– [unlisted rev. die]); Price 982; HGC 3, 1567. VF, die shift on obverse. Extremely rare, none in Pella, CoinArchives, or the ANS photofile, and this issue unseen by Karayotov.

From the Colin E. Pitchfork Collection, purchased from David Hay, December 1994.

Karayotov catalogs this issue (catalog no. 59), but did not see an example, so he did not include it in his die study. Price references a piece in the ANS, but there is no such piece listed in Pella. In any event, Karayotov’s placement of the issue, subsequent to his catalog no. 58 (die combination 33) is correct, as this coin is struck from the same obverse die as that issue.