ORC2602 Alexander III gold stater Memphis aEF
Item price    $2,100.00
oldromancoins.com
Nov-10-01 12:49:38


ORC2602 Alexander III gold stater Memphis aEF

Alexander the Great, Gold stater, (8.55g) Memphis Mint, struck under
Perdicas, 323-316 BC, Helmeted head of Alexander (?) right, hair streaming
behind, in helmet. / ALEXANDP[OY B]ASILE[WS] Nike advancing left, wings
open, holding ship's mast and wreath, rose to lower left, D[I?] at right.
Price3999A (as Eastern Mint) but cf. Price 3975a (similar obverse die) and
Price 3967-8, with these symbols, lacking the title "king." Near EF, nice
Memphis style.

Unusual with the title BASILEWS (King) but the style and reverse symbols,
rose and D show it must be Memphis. Some of the best die engravers worked
at Memphis.

Like the majority of Memphis coins of Alexander the Great, this coin has a
D on the reverse, in a position secondary to the primary mint symbol, in
this case a rose. Others have DI or DI O or a monogram which may be DA.
Apparently DIO was a mint official. His tenure as an official extended well
into the reign of Ptolemy I as king. Many Attic standard and Rhodian
standard later silver tetradrachms of this reign have similar monograms, as
well as later tetradrachms. So he was an official from about 325 BC to
about 290 BC.

Is it possible that DIO may be the engraver known as D from his signature
on the obverse of many coins from the same time period? Hazzard notes that
D, the engraver, began to sign obverse dies in about 314 BC, after some
years as a craftsman, working for about 25 more years. If he started in 324
BC, his career would have been 35 years.