Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XX 29-30 Oct 2020
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Satraps of Karia, Pixodaros AR Didrachm. Halikarnassos, circa 341/0-336/5 BC. Laureate head of Apollo facing, turned slightly to right / Zeus Labraundos standing to right, holding double-axe (labrys) over shoulder and and lotus-tipped sceptre; ΠIΞΩΔAPOY to right. SNG Copenhagen 597; SNG Kayhan 891; SNG Von Aulock 2375-6; Pixodarus -. 6.90g, 20mm, 12h.
Good Extremely Fine; beautiful old cabinet tone. Very Rare; struck from what are undoubtedly the finest dies for the issue.
From the Long Valley River Collection;
Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction II, 2 October 2011, lot 305 (sold for £7,000);
Ex Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung, Auction 195, 7 March 2011, lot 248.
From 395 to 334 BC the rulers of Caria were members of the family of Hekatomnos of Mylasa, whose sons Maussolos, Idrieos and Pixodaros all succeeded him in their turn. Pixodaros as the youngest, was the last member of the family to rule Caria, and but for the indignant interference of Philip II of Macedon, would have given the hand of his daughter in marriage to Alexander III.
This piece, which is perhaps the work of the same engraver that created the dies for a magnificent tetradrachm (Triton XII, January 2009, lot 325) far surpasses its contemporary issues in terms of artistic merit. Apollo here has well-defined and handsome features; the artist no doubt took inspiration from the facing tetradrachms of Amphipolis and Rhodes that had been produced only a few years earlier. Neither this obverse die nor that of the aforementioned tetradrachm were represented in the Pixodarus hoard of 1978, whose burial date has been deduced to be 341 or 340 at the latest, implying that these coins were later works of a talented artist active in the middle or latter part of Pixodaros' reign.
Good Extremely Fine; beautiful old cabinet tone. Very Rare; struck from what are undoubtedly the finest dies for the issue.
From the Long Valley River Collection;
Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction II, 2 October 2011, lot 305 (sold for £7,000);
Ex Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung, Auction 195, 7 March 2011, lot 248.
From 395 to 334 BC the rulers of Caria were members of the family of Hekatomnos of Mylasa, whose sons Maussolos, Idrieos and Pixodaros all succeeded him in their turn. Pixodaros as the youngest, was the last member of the family to rule Caria, and but for the indignant interference of Philip II of Macedon, would have given the hand of his daughter in marriage to Alexander III.
This piece, which is perhaps the work of the same engraver that created the dies for a magnificent tetradrachm (Triton XII, January 2009, lot 325) far surpasses its contemporary issues in terms of artistic merit. Apollo here has well-defined and handsome features; the artist no doubt took inspiration from the facing tetradrachms of Amphipolis and Rhodes that had been produced only a few years earlier. Neither this obverse die nor that of the aforementioned tetradrachm were represented in the Pixodarus hoard of 1978, whose burial date has been deduced to be 341 or 340 at the latest, implying that these coins were later works of a talented artist active in the middle or latter part of Pixodaros' reign.