Watch List notes:

JDL Collection Part II: Geek Coins
NORTHERN GREECE. KINGDOM OF MACEDONIA.

PERSEUS, 179–168.

Tetradrachm, Pella 179, Attic standard, AR 16.85 g. Work signed by the engraver Zoilos.
Obv. Diademed head of Perseus right; below the edge of neck, signature Zℵ?ΙΛΟΥ.
Rev. ΒΑΣΙ−ΛΕℵ?Σ / PER-SEÙS Eagle standing right on thunderbolt; in right field, monograms and ; all within oak-wreath.
Literature
SNG Berry 383 (this obverse die) SNG Copenhagen -
AMNG III/2, 195, 1, pl. 35, 23 (these dies)
C. Boehringer, "Zur Chronologie mittelhellenistischer Münz- serien 220-160 v. Chr.", AMuGS 5, Berlin, 1972, p. 101, group I, pl. 7, 5 and 18, 1 (these dies)
F. de Callataÿ, "Un Tétradrachme de Lysimaque signé au droit et la question des signatures d'artistes à la période hellénistique", RA 1995/1, 15 and 19 (this obverse die)
A. Mamroth, "Die Silbermünzen des Königs Perseus", ZfN 38, 1928, pl. I, 1 (this obverse die)
de Luynes 1712 (these dies)
M.-M. Bendenoun, Coins of the Ancient World, A portrait of the JDL Collection, Tradart, Genève, 2009, 18 (this coin)
Condition
Extremely rare and among the finest specimens known. A realistic portrait of enchanting beauty, the work of a talented master-engraver. Extremely fine.

Provenance
The Numismatic Auction Ltd I, New York 1982, lot 70.
The portrait tetradrachms of the Macedonian King Perseus range greatly in their quality of engraving. When Mamroth (ZfN 38, 1928) divided these coins into five groups spanning the eleven years of Perseus' reign, he identified the initial issue of 179/8
B.C. as having a bust of exceptional style and relief that was accompanied by the signature of an official named Zoilus.
Since that signature appears boldly beneath the neck of the king it is possible, if not likely, that Zoilus was more than a mere mint official. Perhaps he was a trusted advisor to Perseus who had a
special talent for finances and who controlled the imperial purse. It is not known why his name disappears after the initial issue, though one might presume that it was considered too bold an expression that caused resentment or suspicion. On some later issues of Perseus tetradrachms the name of Zoilus occurs in a less-brazen manner in the form of a monogram on the reverse.
Zoilus may had been involved with the imperial Macedonian mint during the previous administration of King Philip V (221-179 B.C.), for an official of that name signed a tetradrachm for Amphaxitis, the region in Macedon that contained Thessalonica. Furthermore, in his study of the Larissa Hoard, Martin Price suggests that the Er- mias who signed Rhodian-style drachms likely struck to pay Perseus' Cretan mercenaries may have been the son of the Zoilus whose name appears on this tetradrachm.
After Zoilus' initial 'signed' issue, the style of engraving on Per- seus' tetradrachms steadily degrades, most noticeably with the final group, which Mamroth assigns to 171-168 B.C., during the Third Macedonian War. The decline in artistry was accom- panied by a drop of about ten percent in weight, which may signal financial difficulties as Macedon and Rome drew ever closer to a war that would end with a crushing Roman victory at Pydna in June of 168.