Nomos 38

ISLANDS OFF THRACE, Samothrace. Circa 168-150 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 40 mm, 15.26 g, 6 h), struck under the magistates Polyxenos and Ant.... Head of Athena to left, wearing a Corinthian helmet adorned with a snake coiled to left. Rev. ΣΑΜΟΘ / ΠΟΛΥ-ΞENOY Kybele, wearing a tall polos and long robes, seated to left on a high-backed and decorated throne; holding a phiale in her extended right hand and a long scepter with her left; under the throne, lion seated to left; in the exergue, monogram of ΑΝΤ. Berlin 18207685 = HGC VI, 314 (but with the magistrate's name wrongly given as Πολυξενιδου) = Regling, Babylon, ZfN 38, pp. 92 and 102 ff., 1 and Taf. 8 = Schönert-Geiss, Zur Münzprägung von Samothrake. Ein Überblick, ΧΑΡΑΚΤΗΡ, Festschrift M. Oikonomidou, ed. A. Abramea. Athens, 1996. pp. 271-276, and especially p. 273 and fig. 1, 7 (same dies). Bank Leu 45, 1988, 88 (same dies). Extremely rare, the third known example. Toned and struck on a very broad flan. Reverse slightly double-struck, minor marks, otherwise, about extremely fine.

From an English collection formed in late 1990s.

It would be intriguing to know why this coin was issued. Normally, tetradrachms are issued for special payments: building projects, military events, special taxes. But, in that case, they would have been struck from a number of die pairs, since such payments would have been relatively substantial. So could it be this coin was minted as a donative, financed by a wealthy devotee?