‡ Italy, Calabria, Tarentum, period of Alexander the Molossian, King of Epirus (350-330 BC), stater, c. 332-330 BC, laureate head of Zeus right, rev., ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ/ΤΟΥ ΝΕΟΠΤΟΛΕΜΟΥ, thunderbolt; to right, standing eagle right, 10.81g, die axis 5.00 (AMB 91, this piece; Vlasto 1871, same dies; Vlasto Alexander 12, pl. X, 10, same dies; BMC Thessaly 3), toned, about extremely fine and extremely rare Provenance: Athos and Dina Moretti collection; Collection Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig, NAC 13, 8 October 1998, lot 91; European Connoisseur collection (formed before 2002).Note: Unravelling the family ties of Alexander the Molossian is like untying the Gordian knot. He was, through his sister Olympias’s marriage, the brother-in-law of Philip II of Macedon. He then married Philip and Olympias’s daughter (his niece) Cleopatra, and so became an in-law to his wife’s brother Alexander III (the Great) who was also his nephew. It was at the wedding feast of Molossian and Cleopatra that his father-in-law Philip II was assassinated. The son of Neoptolemos I (370-357) Alexander was placed on the throne of Epirus in 342 BC by Phillip II and succeeded in making it an important power. In 334/3 BC he and his army came to the aid of Tarentum and had much success against south Italian allies of Rome before his death in battle at Pandosia in 330 BC. Issued in Tarentum, but on the Epirote standard, this coin was produced to pay his troops.

Estimate: GBP 15000-20000