Nomos 17

KINGS OF THRACE. Ptolemy Keraunos, 281-279 BC. Stater (Gold, 20 mm, 8.53 g, 5 h), in the name and with the types of Lysimachos, Lysimacheia, 281-280. Diademed head of Alexander the Great to right, with horn of Ammon over his ear. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΛΥΣΙΜΑΧΟΥ Athena seated left on low-backed throne, holding Nike, crowning the king’s name, in her right hand, a long, transverse spear in her left, and with her left elbow resting on a shield ornamented with a facing lion's head; to left, below Nike, lion's head to left; to the left of Athena's knee, elephant; on throne, monogram of ΘΕ. Hollstein p. 14, fig. 3 (this coin). Of the greatest rarity, the second known example. A coin of the greatest historical interest. Some very minor marks on the reverse, perhaps at the time of minting, otherwise, virtually as struck.

Privately purchased from Tradart, ex Bank Leu 50, 25 April 1990, 93.

For the very convincing attribution of this gold stater and its accompanying silver tetradrachms to Ptolemy Keraunos, the assassin of Seleukos I, see W. Hollstein, Münzen des Ptolemaios Keraunos, SNR 74, 1995, pp. 13-24 (the second known example of the stater appeared in the collection of the late L. Adams, CNG MBS 72, 14 June 2006, 499 = Triton XIX, 5 January 2016, 2037). Keraunos was the son of Ptolemy I by his first wife, Eurydike, a daughter of Antipater. Passed over for the succession in favor of his half-brother Ptolemy II, son of Ptolemy I and his second wife Berenike, Keraunos hastily fled Egypt for the court of Lysimachos: his sister Lysandra was the wife of Agathokles, the heir of Lysimachos, and his half-sister Arsinoe was Lysimachos' present wife. After a variety of intrigues that resulted in his flight to Seleukos, whom he convinced to attack Lysimachos (he was defeated and killed by the Seleukid army at the Battle of Corupedion in 281), he then assassinated Seleukos (!) and managed to be proclaimed king of Macedon.