| Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles > Auction 146 | Auction date: 28 July 2025 |
| Lot number: 687 Price realized: 7,000 USD (Approx. 6,015 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: Alexander III, the Great, 336-323 BC. Gold Stater (8.5g). Struck at Ake (Akko) in Tyre ca. 315-310 BC (38). Helmeted head of Athena right. Reverse: AEΞANΔPOY. Nike standing left holding wreath and stylis; in left lower field Punic letters and numbers. Price 3294a; Newell, Ake 43. Boldly struck and problem free with traces of rose color luster present. NGC graded XF; Strike:4/5, Surface: 4/5. Estimated Value $7,500 - UP The identity of Alexander the Great's mint in Phoenicia that marked its issues with the Phoenician letters 'ayin and kaph became a subject of controversy among numismatists in the late twentieth century. Early in the century, scholars like E. T. Newell identified the issuing city as the southern Phoenician city of 'Akko with the assumption that the legend represented first two letters of that city's name. This position was challenged in 1976 by A. Lemaire ("Le monnayage de Tyr et celui dit d'Akko dans la deuxième moitié du IV siècle avant J.-C.," RN 1976) who instead proposed that the mint in question was Tyre and that the Phoenician legend represented the first and last letters of 'Ozmilk, the name of the Tyrian king who was ruling the city when Alexander arrived in 332 BC. However, Martin Price championed the earlier attribution to 'Akko in his 1991 magnum opus on the coinages of Alexander and Philip Arrhidaeus. The identity of the mint as 'Akko remained numismatic orthodoxy for two decades, until J. and A. G. Elayi published a study of the fifth- and fourth-century coinage of Tyre in 2009. This clearly showed that the letters on the Alexander issues abbreviate the name of 'Ozmilk and that the mint must therefore be Tyre. When Alexander and his army reached Tyre in 332 BC, 'Ozmilk was away with the Phoenician fleet serving the Macedonian king's enemy, Darius III of Persia. Fearing Alexander, the Tyrians withdrew to the walled old city, which was an island. Alexander asked permission to enter the city so that he could sacrifice at its famous temple of Melqart-a god considered by the Greeks to be a form of Heracles. Doubting his intentions, the Tyrians swore to let neither the Macedonians or Persians into the city. Infuriated, Alexander undertook a lengthy siege of the city that ultimately saw him build a mole to connect the island to the mainland. Finally, after a bitter siege of seven months and the loss of many Macedonian lives, Alexander captured the city. He spared the lives of those Tyrians who sought refuge in the temple of Melqart-including 'Ozmilk, who had arrived back just as the siege was beginning- but raging at the cost of the siege in terms of materiel, lives, and time, he ordered the crucifixion of 2,000 Tyrians on the beach and sold 30,000 men, women, and children into slavery. Once the wrath of the Macedonian king was spent, he appointed 'Ozmilk to continue his reign in the much-depopulated city as Alexander's subordinate. This attractive gold stater features not only the abbreviated name of 'Ozmilk, but also includes a Phoenician date based on the count of the king's regnal years. Although part of the date is struck off flan here, what is visible suggests that the full date was something between regnal year 35 (315/14 BC) and 39 (311/10 BC). This was a tumultuous period in which the Successors of Alexander fought the so-called Third War of the Diadochi. This conflict saw Alexander's former generals, Ptolemy I of Egypt, Cassander of Macedon, and Lysimachus of Thrace, form a coalition against Antigonus Monophthalmus, who was working to reassemble the Macedonian empire under his own authority. The Near East was an important theater in this war, and the mint of Tyre was needed to provide coins to finance the troops fighting on behalf of Antigonus's son Demetrius Poliorcetes against Ptolemy. Ex The America Collection. |  |
