Finally a Av Stater of Alexander that is Life time

Alexander III Av Stater Amphipolis 332-323 BC Obv, Head of Athena right wearing Corinthian style helmet In left field kantharus. Rv, Nike standing left holding wreath and stylis Price 168 Troxell 480 Series 2 8.61 grms 18 mm Photo from Peus Auktion 430
Some of you who have been on this thread know of my continual effort to study the coinage of Alexander the Great and my attempts at decerning which of the coins of his are lifetime. Up to now my efforts have centered on the silver coinage and have over time discussed my findings on the thread "Saturday Night Free for All. However if the silver coinage is a headache the gold is even worse. One of the biggest problems it that the symbol such as the kantharus seen above can be found on staters minted from 332 BC to 290 BC and perhaps even later. More over the same symbols can be found on the gold and silver in the name of Philip II
Kassander Av Stater Amphipolis 300-290 BC Obv Head of Athena right wearing Corinthian style helmet Rv Nike standing left holding wreath and stylis To left trident Price 172 HGC 987 8.60 grms 18 mm Photo by W. Hansen The Trident was used from the inception of the stater from 332 BC to the end. When I bought this coin back in 2017 I thought I bought a lifetime stater but was quickly proven to be in error. This coin actually sparked my whole quest to study the coinage of Alexander. As the symbol of the kantharus is seen on both lifetime and posthumous coinage I elected to use Troxell's study on the coinage.
Back to my coin Back in April I was looking through the auction lots offered by Peus when I spotted this coin. I immediately went to my books and discovered that this coin was an obverse die match (possibly the reverse as well) to Troxell 480 O10/C4 . As the series one coins consists of 6 obverse dies my coin even though it is a group two is fairly early in the sequence. For some reason I am unable to access Peus on Biddr so I used an agent. Bidding was spirited but I won the coin. I got just last Friday
So what happened? Why the delay? Apparently one of the coins in the group had run afoul of some new German law. It was not mine, I could not find out much of anything so I really do not know. It may be some kind of "Cultural Patrimony issue" . Oh well living better through bureaucracy. However I got it and all is well

 

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Excellent coin. Congratulations.

 

Simply Outstanding, is the leg crossing feature really indicative of a lifetime issue vs After death?

 

Very. Nice specimen quite a gem!

 

Outstanding Terrence. Simply outstanding!

 

Do you know of any good reference books/papers on Alexander staters?

 

Beautifull coin!!!!

 

I don't know ancients coins, but that coin took my breath away. Wow nice.

 

Extremely beautiful coin, a true treasure! Congratulations and thank you for sharing

 

In response to @Irapuca There are a number of books available. The two key references for the revised dating of the coins of Alexander III are these.
Alexander the Great Coinage Finances and Policy by Georges Le Rider is a very useful synopsis on the coinage of Alexander The second is this one

Studies in the Macedonian Coinage of Alexander the Great by Hyla Troxell. This gives a fairly detailed overview of the coinage from the Macedonian mints during the reign of Alexander III. Beyond this there are a number of articles written ob Llyod Taylor usually found in the American Journal of Numismatics published by the ANS and in Koinon. All of these can give you some idea as to what to look for. As mentioned before my stuff mostly found in the Saturday Night Free For All thread is also available. Here my info is rather more limited as I focus on coins within my own collection. If interested should you see a coin that you might be interested in you can contact me in private and ask my opinion.

 

Protecting cultural patrimony is not "bureaucracy". Looters and antiquities traffickers severely harm History by destroying archaeological sites, erasing all interesting data that may come with the coins such as their provenance, which other coins they were hoarded with, etc. In some countries (in which most ancient coins happen to be auctioned) auctioneers are satisfied with forged paperwork with no further questions asked, a coin's provenance is clean unless it can be proved illegal. In other countries (like Germany for ex.) the burden of proof in on the seller: a coin may be auctioned if its provenance is proved legal.

 

This is definitely NOT correct for Germany.
You can auction any coin unless it is proved stolen or looted or whatever.
The burden of proof is not on the seller.
For example: Romania once tried to confiscate al Koson-staters from any auction house or dealer's shop in Germany, stating they were all part of two hoards belonging to the Romanian people. No chance

 

Talking about the tets? I've heard that too. Too bad so many "Ancients" left.

 

You are quite right - it is just an urban legend
Does anyone really believe that all responsible mint-masters in Alexander's empire had a general meeting after the Boss' death and issued a board decision on Zeus' legs?
It is just a little bit more complicated.

Regards
Klaus

 

I need to answer a couple of questions
To answer @Mammothtooth No the crossed legged variety on the silver coinage is usually associated with posthumous issues. There is only one mint that of Sidon that uses the crossed legged variety while Alexander is alive and that starts in 325 BC. The type does not appear to spread too quickly. Tyre does not seem to adopt it until 320 BC and the Ptolemies until 322 BC. The type did not spread into Macedon until the time of Kassander.
To answer @GinoLR Under normal circumstances I might be in agreement. The illegal looting of cultural artifacts is very bad and should be stopped. However in this case none of that appears to be the case. I was told that the coin in question that was being stopped was north of 100,000 Euros. There is only one coin that fits that description. It is a tetradrachm from Kingdom of Pontus It was previously auctioned in 1974 It was featured in a book in 1964. Prior to 1974 it was owned by a citizen of France one Charles Gillet. I cannot see how this coin fits any of the criterion cited above. Now I could be wrong and if so I do apologize. However otherwise I will stand by my comment.

 

Congratulations & thanks for sharing the coin @Terence Cheesman, glad it made it to you safely. It is a beautiful work of ancient art with a weight of history.