My latest addition comes from Ephesus - it is a cistophoric tetradrachm of Aucustus from 24-20 BC. These large format provicial silvers are quite nice in hand. See notes on this coin and the Temple of Artemis here: https://www.sullacoins.com/post/temple-of-artemis-ephesus Post your Augustan silver, Cistophoric Tetradrachms of the Roman Empire or anything else you find interesting or entertaining.
At Ephesus in 28 BC a cistophorus was issued with the laureate head of Octavian on the obverse and the goddess Pax on the reverse. The date is confirmed by Octavian’s titles which do not include AVGVSTVS. A significant coin, because it marks the beginning of the PAX ROMANA, which prevailed in the Roman Empire for the next hundred years. The title AVGVSTVS appeared on the subsequent silver issues of Octavian but as there is no indication of where they were minted, it is uncertain whether the mint was Ephesus or Pergamum. C.H.V. Sutherland studied these coins and in his book, “The Cistophori of Augustus”, he concluded that only three types were minted at Ephesus from about 25 to 20 BC. On the reverse of the first type there is a Capricorn, the star-sign under which Augustus was born. A similar issue was minted at Pergamum. On the second type, there is a bunch of six ears of corn. Again, a similar issue was minted at Pergamum. On the third type, there is an altar, decorated with deer, of the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. RIC has two entries for this type, RIC I, 2nd edition, 479 and 482. The difference seems to be the positioning and spacing of the obverse legend: IMP.CAESAR unbroken and completely or mostly behind Augustus' neck on RIC 479 IMP.CAE- SAR with CAE below Augustus' neck and SAR below his chin on RIC 482. On this coin the legend is mostly off flan, but clearly is IMP.CAE- SAR, so RIC 482. However, in RPC 2213-2215 the six types RIC 480-482 and RIC 477-479 are reduced to three types, each citing two RIC numbers: 477=480, 478=481, and 479=482. 25x26 mm; 11.136 g Ionia, Ephesus, struck ca. 25 - 20 BC RIC I 479 =482; RPC I 2215; BMCRE 694; BN 922; Sutherland group V–VIγ; RSC 33; Ob.: IMP CAE-SAR Bare head of Augustus to r. Rev.: AVGVSTVS Garlanded and filleted altar of the temple of Artemis at Ephesus; on the front, two stags facing each other
Thanks for the added info and coin @cmezner, I found it challenging to match my dies to Sutherland's images - The differences that I could see between dies are hairlines, garlands, lettering differences, tall altars and elongated portraits - I lost patience trying to map to a specific die pair.
