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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 

Very Rare Published Stater of Queen Amastris

425, Lot: 154. Estimate $750.
Sold for $3000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PAPHLAGONIA, Amastris. Queen Amastris. Circa 300-285 BC. AR Double Siglos – Stater (19mm, 9.74 g, 1h). Head of Mên right, wearing Phrygian cap adorned with laurel wreath; bow-in-bowcase to left / Aphrodite seated left, holding in extended right hand Eros, who presents wreath; above, facing head of Helios; lotus-tipped scepter to right, propped against throne. Callataÿ, Premier, Group 1A, 4a (D2/R4 – this coin); RG 1; HGC 7, 352. VF, toned, slightly off center on obverse. Very rare, Group 1A stater, 17 noted by Callataÿ, of which 6 are in museum collections, only 1 additional in CoinArchives.


From the DSV Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group 67 (22 September 2004), lot 629; Peus 347 (23 April 2003), lot 86; New York Sale IV (16 January 2003), lot 131.

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.