KINGS OF MACEDON. Time of Antigonos II Gonatas to Demetrios II Aetolicos, 246-229 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 31 mm, 17.04 g, 11 h), Amphipolis. Head of Poseidon to right, wearing wreath of seaweed. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ - ΑΝΤΙΓΟΝΟΥ Apollo seated to left on a prow, holding his bow in his right hand and resting his left on an outer plank of the prow; below, monogram. Panagopoulou Period III, Group 45, 238 (O36/R228 same dies; and do note that while 239 is also given to O36, it was actually struck with O35 ). SNG Berry 361 ( this obverse die ). SNG Munich 1122 ( this obverse die ). A magnificent example, perfectly centered and struck in high relief from fresh dies. Good extremely fine.

Property of a Late Collector, ex Numismatica Ars Classica 1989 (1) lot 149.

It is really perplexing that a coin like this, probably the best known example of its type and with a pedigree to an NAC auction in 1989, managed not to be recorded by Katerina Panagopoulou in the extensive die study she produced for her monograph, "The Early Antigonids" that appeared as ANSNS 37 in 2020.

Although this book is extremely useful, as it is a first endeavour to put the numismatic chaos of the early Antigonids into a rational order, and is extremely well documented historically, it has, nevertheless, some serious problems. Apart from the fact that the tetradrachms in the name of Alexander III, which were struck by Antigonos II Gonatas, are missing completely from the corpus, many dies have been missatributed; some appear under two different numbers. Occasionally, when a coin appeared in different auctions, it is given a different die attribution. Most annoying is the fact that, while extensive, the research into known specimens is incomplete: a considerable amount of material, especially from auction catalogues, is apparently unrecorded in the corpus, which, in turn, means that there are more than just a few unrecorded dies. What certainly is missing is a proper index of the collections and auctions that were consulted (as they are in Fischer-Bossert's admirable Tarentum volume), which makes the whole book extremely difficult to follow from a numismatic perspective.