ASIA MINOR UNCERTAIN MINT ALEXANDER TYPE TETRADRACHM – ISSUE WITH BEARDED HEAD AND CONTROL UNKNOWN TO PRICE – CHOICE VF NGC GRADED GREEK IONIA COIN (Inv. 19842)

$1,500.00

19842. ASIA MINOR. UNCERTAIN MINT. CIVIC ISSUE IN THE NAME AND TYPES OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT, ca. 240–180 BC.
Silver Tetradrachm of Alexander type, 16.95 g, 32 mm.
Obv. Head of young Heracles right in lion skin headdress. Rev. ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ, Zeus enthroned left, holding eagle and scepter, bearded head with calathus left in left field, MIO control monogram in outer left field.
Price –, but cf. Price 2117 (same dies, reverse with different controls); Mektepini Hoard 274 (same obverse, there attributed to Pergamum).
NGC graded CHOICE VF, Strike 5/5, surface 4/5, “(unlisted in M.Price).”

This variety was unknown to Martin Price but fits perfectly into a grouping attributed to an uncertain mint in Asia Minor designated by a bearded male head wearing a calathus. The obverse die used here was also employed for Price 2816 and 2817, but more interestingly the reverse die is a recut of one that struck a specimen of Price 2817 (De Nederlandsche Bank, GR–03045, illustrated below). The exergue monogram ΘEY originally on the die was erased (although traces of it remain), and a new control was added in exterior right field. Since the die of the present coin appears in a later state of use, this piece belongs immediately after Price 2817.