Rare M-Signed Obverse

Sale: Triton X, Lot: 151. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Monday, 8 January 2007.  Sold For $850. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’. 336-323 BC. AR Drachm (4.30 g, 1h). Obverse die signed by M. Magnesia ad Maeandrum mint. Lifetime issue, struck circa 325-323 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin; small M at lower edge of inner mane / ALEXANDROU, Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; in left field, ram’s head left above monogram. Price 1922 var. (M not noted); Hersh & Troxell, “A 1993 Hoard of Alexander Drachms,” AJN 5-6 (1993-4), obverse die 5, pl. 6, 5.3 (same dies); SNG Saroglos 761 (same rev. die). Superb EF. Rare.

Lifetime-issue drachms are rare at Magnesia, as confirmed by Hersh & Troxell’s hoard study. Like Price, though, both missed identifying the M on the obverse. Nonetheless, their analysis of the known dies of this period (8 total) reveals two dies, 3 and 5, that have the M (see pl. 6, 3.2-3.8a and 5.3-5.6a). The style of each of the eight dies varies greatly, except for the two M dies, which are very similar. This suggests that the M is actually the signature of the engraver.