Leu Numismatik AG
Auction 10 24 Oct 2021
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TROAS. Skepsis. Circa 100-70 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 30 mm, 16.73 g, 1 h), Konon, son of Posidaios (or vice versa). Head of Zeus to right, wearing oak wreath. Rev. ΣΚΗ-ΨΙΩΝ / ΚΟΝΩΝΟΣ / ΠΟΣΙΔΑΙΟΥ Zeus standing front, head to left, holding thunderbolt in his right hand and long scepter in his left; in field to left, winged thunderbolt; all within oak wreath. Bellinger -. BMC -. J. Kagan: Hellenistic Coinage at Scepsis after its Refoundation in the Third Century B.C., in: MN 29 (1984), -. SNG Copenhagen -. SNG von Aulock -. Apparently unpublished and unique. A coin of great interest and importance, the first recorded stephanophoric tetradrachm from Skepsis. Struck from a corroded obverse die and with a die break on the reverse, otherwise, extremely fine.
Skepsis was abandoned in 310 BC during the synoecism that lead to the foundation of Antigoneia, the later Alexandria Troas, by Antigonos Monophthalmos in 310. However, many of the exiles returned some years later with the permission of Lysimachos and the city even housed a short-lived Seleukid royal mint in the mid 3rd century BC. With the emergence of this exceptional coin, we now have evidence, for the first time, that Skepsis also joined the list of cities in western Asia Minor to strike a stephanophoric silver coinage on the Attic weight standard in the late Hellenistic time.
Skepsis was abandoned in 310 BC during the synoecism that lead to the foundation of Antigoneia, the later Alexandria Troas, by Antigonos Monophthalmos in 310. However, many of the exiles returned some years later with the permission of Lysimachos and the city even housed a short-lived Seleukid royal mint in the mid 3rd century BC. With the emergence of this exceptional coin, we now have evidence, for the first time, that Skepsis also joined the list of cities in western Asia Minor to strike a stephanophoric silver coinage on the Attic weight standard in the late Hellenistic time.