424, Lot: 231. Estimate $150. Sold for $90. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CARIA, Uncertain (Mylasa?). Circa 180-170 BC. AR Drachm (15mm, 2.07 g, 12h). Imitating Rhodes. Mousaios, magistrate. Head of Helios facing slightly right / Rose with bud to left; MOYΣAIOΣ above, P-O flanking, tiny Δ to left of stem, kerykeion to right. R. Ashton, “Pseudo-Rhodian Drachms and the Beginning of the Lycian League Coinage” in NC 147 (1987), Series I, 13 var. (A6/P– [unlisted rev. die]); SNG Keckman 803 var. (B to left of stem). VF, toned. Very rare issue with Δ, only one example noted by Ashton, one in CoinArchives.

From the WRG Collection, purchased from William Porter.

M. Price persuasively argued for placing this issue at Alabanda (Price p. 308), to which Ashton agreed, but then later noted that evidence strongly pointed to a different origin further east in Caria. Mylasa was Ashton’s original suggestion, and the later evidence makes this more likely than Alabanda, but confirmation is still lacking.