BYZANTIUM LYSIMACHUS TYPE GOLD STATER – UNPUBLISHED AND SUPER RARE EMISSION – NGC AU GREEK THRACE COIN (Inv. 20072)

$8,500.00

20072. KINGDOM OF THRACE. KING LYSIMACHUS, 305–281 BC
Gold Stater, 8.38 g, 20 mm. Posthumous issue of Byzantium, ca. 100 BC.
Obv. Head of deified Alexander the Great right, with the horn of Amon. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΛΥΣΙΜΑXΟΥ, Athena enthroned left, holding a Nike crowning Lysimachus’ name, ΠAP monogram in left field, BY on throne, trident in exergue.
Callataÿ –; Seyrig, Monnaies –; Müller –; Marinescu –.
NGC AU, Strike 5/5, Surface 3/5.

This coin is an issue that is unpublished in all major treatises on this series; there are only two specimens that have appeared on the market, including this one which is the better of the two. The obverse die of this coin was also used to strike other staters with different issue marks that are part of the Byzantium’s emissions in support of Mithridates VI of Pontus. The Mithridatic Wars, as these conflicts are jointly known, were the last great struggle of the Greek world for independence against the Roman empire. The defeat of Mithridates and subsequently that of Cleopatra VII of Egypt, marked the end of the Hellenistic world and its royal kingdoms.