424, Lot: 96. Estimate $200. Sold for $140. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Antigonos I Monophthalmos. As Strategos of Asia, 320-306/5 BC. AR Tetradrachm (26mm, 17.02 g, 12h). In the name and types of Alexander III. Sidon mint. Dated RY 1 of an uncertain king (309/8 BC). Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; in left field, A (date) above M; ΣI below throne. Price 3520 = 3521 corr. (“globule” is a die flaw); Newell, Dated 65 (dies XXXII/ε); DCA 877. VF, lightly toned, minor porosity.

From the Colin E. Pitchfork Collection. Ex Tuck Pittman Collection; Noble 76 (27 July 2004), lot 3191.

Price noted a mark to the upper left of the A as a “globule” and placed it as a new variety of the Sidon year 1 dated tetradrachms. This “globule,” however, is almost certainly a die flaw: globules were not used at Sidon or Tyre (“Ake”) as a field mark, the “globule” is only present on one die, and the present coin shows other die flaws developing to the upper left of the A. Moreover, Newell was well aware of this “globule” as it was present on three examples, and he apparently did not consider it as an intentional mark in the die. The most revealing evidence though, is ANS 1944.100.35236, a tetradrachm from the same reverse die as these “globule” coins, but struck before the “globule” die flaw developed.