Ancient Gold Coins

Lot 3739    SESSION 13 (9.30am Friday)    Ancient Gold Coins

Estimate $3,000
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $2,600

MACEDON, Kingdom of, Demetrios Poliorketes, (294-288 B.C.), gold stater, (8.596 grams), Pella mint, issued 294-293 B.C., obv. head of Athena to right in crested Corinthian helmet, ornamented with coiled snake, rev. Nike standing to left, holding wreath in outstretched hand, and ship mast in right hand, with I**W* monogram in left field, to right **DHMHTRIOU*, (S.6758; Newell 65 [Pl.VI, 14 same dies]). Good very fine with scratches, graffiti and pin-holes on the obverse, very rare.

A rare gold stater of the Alexander type struck in the name of Demetrios. Upon the death of Perdikkas in 320 BC, Demetrios' father Antigonos I tried to regain control of Alexander's empire. To this end, Demetrios laid siege to a number of cities. An alliance between Seleukos, Ptolemy, Lysimachos, and Kassander, however, defeated Demetrios and his father in 301 BC at Ipsos. Demetrios soon allied himself with Seleukos, who granted him lands in Cilicia. It was at this time that mints at Tarsos and Salamis in Cyprus began striking Alexander staters in the name of Demetrios as King. In 294 BC, Demetrios lost Cilicia, but regained control of Macedonia, where the minting of his Alexander staters continued until circa 290. In 285, after a futile attempt to recover his father's territories in Asia, he surrendered at last to Seleukos, who hospitably encouraged the once-great general to drink himself to death.