ALEXANDER THE GREAT GOLD STATER – PREVISOULY UNKNOWN OVERSTRIKE ON PERSIAN DARIC FROM BATTLE BOOTY – AU NGC GRADED GREEK MACEDONIAN KINGDOM COIN (inv. 21220)

$15,500.00

21220. MACEDONIAN KINGDOM. ALEXANDER III, THE GREAT, 336–323 BC.
Gold Stater, 8.57 g, 17 mm. LIFETIME issue of Sidon, undated, but likely ca. 333–327 BC.
Obv. Head of Athena right, wearing large Corinthian helmet with lion-griffin ornament below the plume. Rev. ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ, Nike standing, looking left, holding wreath in right hand and stylis over left shoulder, filleted branch below right wing.
Price 3470; Newell, Sidon, 11.
NGC graded AU, Strike 3/5, Surface 2/5, “lt. graffito,” “overstruck”; for at least part of its circulating life, the present stater appears to have had a Phoenician owner, judging from the light graffiti of the Phoenician letter shin (Sh) on the obverse and the letter resh (R) on the reverse.

This stater is especially remarkable as it is clearly overstruck on a Persian daric. The outline of the daric’s oblong incuse punch reverse remains visible in part around the top of Athena’s head and cuts across her cheek. The reverse, carefully viewed after rotating the Nike 180 degrees so her feet are up, reveals flattened traces of the daric’s obverse, primarily the king’s crown and bow. This evidence of overstriking goes far toward proving that this issue was indeed struck from the Persian coins captured by Parmenion at Damascus.
Darics used in the manufacture of Alexander staters would have needed to be partially melted to flatten the planchet out, reshape it, and have its weight augmented slightly to reach the Attic standard of the staters. In most cases such a treatment would have obliterated all traces of the original coin, but in this instance the outlines of the daric’s reverse punch persist. A similar overstrike appears on another stater from Sidon (Price 3494, dated 324/3 BC) sold by Heritage 3032, 4/10/2014, lot 23120, raising the possibility that the process of restriking the Persian gold booty would have spanned many years.