The Only Portrait of Lysimachos on a Coin

456, Lot: 78. Estimate $200. Sold for $550. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACE, Lysimacheia. Circa 309-281/79 BC. Æ (21.5mm, 14.47 g, 9h). Diademed head of Lysimachos right / Lion leaping right; AP monogram below. Yağiz LIS Series A, 28; Lischine 1150–1; HGC 3, 1496 (c. 196-190 BC[?]); BMC 1; SNG Copenhagen 899. Dark red-brown patina, slight roughness. VF. The only portrait of Lysimachos on coinage. Very rare, only one of three in CoinArchives.

From the BRN Collection. Ex Pecunem 32 (7 June 2015), lot 57.

This is the only coin issue to feature the portrait of Lysimachos, and is relatively rare today. Although Yağiz dates this issue to the general 309-220 BC range he gives all the civic coinage, it is more likely that it was struck during the lifetime of the king, or the short period afterward when the city was under the rule of Ptolemy Keraunos (281-279 BC). Certainly, the portrait of Lysimachos, who was defeated and killed by Seleukos I, would not have been used on coins when the city came under Seleukid domination following Keraunos’ death.