ALEXANDER THE GREAT SILVER TETRADRACHM – EXTREMELY RARE EMISSION OF MESEMBRIA OVERSTRUCK ON A LYSIMACHUS TETRADRACHM – VF NGC GRADED GREEK COIN (Inv. 18132)

$1,975.00

18132. KINGDOM OF MACEDON. ALEXANDER III, THE GREAT, 336–323 BC.
Silver tetradrachm, 16.37 g, 28 mm. Posthumous issue of Mesembria, Thrace, ca. 225–200 BC.
Obv. Head of young Heracles right in lion skin headdress. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ, Zeus enthroned left, holding eagle and scepter, helmet in left field, ΠXI monogram below throne.
Price 1011; American Numismatic Society 1944.100.35754 (same reverse die, in a more advanced state of wear).
NGC graded VF, Strike 4/5, Surface 4/5, “overstruck.” An extremely rare emission, with only one specimen on CoinArchives and the ANS specimen cited above that is listed in Price as well as the Pella database. Even more interesting is that this piece is overstruck on a tetradrachm of Lysimachus. While the exact variety is not clearly discernible, Athena’s arm resting on her shield from the undertype’s reverse is visible on the reverse of the present specimen.

This extremely rare issue is of special interest for the history of coin production at Mesembria. In his treatment of overstriking at this city, David MacDonald noted 11 examples in the period c. 225–175 BC and three in the period c. 175–150 BC (D. MacDonald, Overstruck Greek Coins, Whitman 2009, p. 119). Of these, all were overstruck on earlier Alexander tetradrachms produced elsewhere, except for one of the second overstriking period (no. 96) that was struck over a posthumous Lysimachus tetradrachm of Byzantium. The present coin, however, was struck over a Lysimachus tetradrachm in the first period of overstriking, thereby making it the earliest known example of an overstruck Lysimachus type at Mesembria. While there are not enough remaining details of the host coin to identify the mint, the regional importance of Byzantium as a producer of posthumous Lysimachus tetradrachms makes it seem not improbable that the host coin was struck there.