I recently added the above coin to my collection from a Heritage Auction, 4-15-21. The coin is a legitimate rarity & had been misattributed by the Heritage staff as Prieur 1666A. This coin is a later "war issue", circa AD 215-217, when a bulls' head was added to the mintmark of a flaming torch surrounded by a serpent. A marked decline in the engraving is apparent in the later issues. The graffito is easier to see in the slab photo with pin-like scratches around the eye socket & right field around the nose. I usually shy away from coins with graffito but couldn't resist this coin because of the rarity & lightness of the impairment. Further more I'd been looking for a "bulls' head" example for a long time. The scratches seem to be ancient; were they made by someone checking to see if it's a fourree counterfeit ? Pictured below is an earlier example from Caesarea Maritima without the added "bulls' head" for comparison.
It is quite unlikely that the scratch was to test the surface, I am not aware of any plated Caesarea tetradrachms. There are typically one or several letters in these graffiti, they typically considered to be short messages or something like that. I have an example struck with the same pair of dies, not as nice as yours though. Congrats!
Factor, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could post photos of your coin with weight & diameter numbers for my records . I've been searching furiously for another example of Prieur 1667A without success . I'm going to remove my coin from the slab to record those dimensions .
Looked again at my coin, and there are different dies after all. But, I have in my records another example of 1667A struck with the same dies as yours: It was sold on ebay some time ago. 24-27mm, 12.22g
Factor, Many thanks for this post ! You're right, the dies are totally different . Your Tet has a much finer portrait. If your could post the photos & dimensions of the coin struck struck from the same dies as mine I'd be indebted to you .
