ERYTHRAE ALEXANDER TYPE TETRADRACHM – UNPUBLISHED ISSUE WITH MAGISTRATE EPIKOS UNKNOWN TO PRICE – CHOICE XF NGC GRADED GREEK IONIA COIN (Inv. 19839)

$1,950.00

19839. IONIA. ERYTHRAE. CIVIC ISSUE IN THE NAME AND TYPES OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT, late 3rd–early 2nd CENTURIES BC.
Silver Tetradrachm of Alexander type, 16.86 g, 31 mm. Issue of magistrate Epikos, ca. 188–170 BC.
Obv. Head of young Heracles right in lion skin headdress. Rev. ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ, Zeus enthroned left, holding eagle and scepter, EPY above club and bow in bowcase and EΠI/KOY (magistrate), all in left field.
Price –.
NGC graded CHOICE XF, Strike 4/5, Surface 4/5, “[unlisted in M. Price]” noted on label.

The city of Erythrae in Ionia (in present day Turkey) struck civic Alexanders from ca. 290–170 BC (Price 1887–1916). Heracles’ attributes, the club and bow in bowcase, were the city’s symbols and appear together with its abbreviated name EPY on the coinage of ca. 200 BC and after. This coin features these symbols as well as the magistrate’s name EΠIKOY (Epikos). Price recorded varieties like this with different names which were struck ca. 188–170 BC but was not aware of Epikos who is attested for the first time on this coin. Usually, the magistrate names were placed in the exergue of the coin, but here it appears complete in the lower left field.