"Extremely Rare" Septimius Severus tetradrachm of Tyre: does anyone have Prieur?

I usually don't post coins I've bought until I actually receive them, but this time my curiosity gets the better of me. In today's Nomos Obolos 22 auction, along with a few other coins, I just won Lot 576, a Septimius Severus tetradrachm from Tyre. The auction description and photo:

PHOENICIA. Tyre. Septimius Severus, 193-211. Tetradrachm (Billon, 27 mm, 13.83 g, 11 h), 209-211. AYT KAI CEΠ CEOYHPOC CE Laureate head of Septimius Severus to right. Rev. ΔΗΜΑΡΧ ΕΞ ΥΠΤΟC ΤΟ Γ Eagle standing facing, with spread wings and head to left, on club to right, holding wreath in his beak; between legs, murex shell. CNG e443, 2019, 422 = Freeman & Sear FPL 1, 1994, A261. Prieur 1533 (both from the same obverse die as this piece). Extremely rare, one of three known examples - in fact, Prieur only knew of a single specimen. An attractive piece, well centered and with a splendid portrait of the emperor. Good very fine.



But it seems to me that this coin should be described as one of only two known examples rather than three, because from CNG's 2019 description, it appears that the example sold by CNG (ex. Freeman & Sear) is Prieur 1533. See https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5864125:

Electronic Auction 443 422 (« | ») 01.05.2019 120 USD 900 USD
Description
Selections from the Michel Prieur Collection
PHOENICIA, Tyre. Septimius Severus. AD 193-211. AR Tetradrachm (27.5mm, 13.96 g, 12h). Struck AD 209-211. Laureate head right / Eagle standing facing on club right, head and tail left, with wings spread, holding wreath in beak; murex shell between legs. Prieur 1533. Good VF, toned. Extremely rare, only one known to Prieur, and none in CoinArchives.
From the Michel Prieur Collection. Ex Freeman & Sear FPL 1 (Winter/Spring 1994), no. A261.

Am I correctly interpreting this? Does anyone have a copy of Prieur so they could please check to confirm that the 2019 CNG specimen is the same coin as Prieur 1533? And, if it is, should I be concerned at all about the authenticity of this second specimen that has turned up for the Nomos Obolos 22 auction, without any listed provenance? (I can certainly ask Nomos about provenance when I receive the invoice, but I doubt they'll have anything informative to tell me.) I know I should ask these questions before I bid, but I liked the portrait so much that I put in a bid without really expecting to win the coin! And now it's mine.

Also, if anyone has a copy of Prieur, what distinguishes this particular type from other Septimius Severus tetradrachms manufactured in Tyre?

Many thanks.

Please post your tetradrachms of any emperor minted in Tyre. My only other one is this:

Trajan AR Tetradrachm, AD 100, Phoenicia, Tyre. Obv. Laureate head of Trajan right; behind, ear of grain in left field; to right, club in right field; below, eagle with folded wings standing right, ΑΥΤΟΚΡ ΚΑΙϹ ΝΕΡ ΤΡΑΙΑΝΟϹ ϹΕΒ ΓΕΡΜ / Rev. Laureate bust of Melqart (as Herakles) right, lion’s skin tied at neck, ΔΗΜΑΡΧ ΕΞ ΥΠΑΤ Γ [= COS III]. RPC [Roman Provincial Coinage] Vol. III 3526 (2015); RPC Online at https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/3/3526; Prieur 1482 [Prieur, Michel and Karin, Syro-Phoenician Tetradrachms (London, 2000)]; McAlee 452/2 (ill. p. 203) (Group 5) [McAlee, Richard, The Coins of Roman Antioch (2007)]. 27 mm., 14.25 g.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I have Prieur but unfortunately his number 1533 is not illustrated in the book. Thus it is not possible without a lot of further work to establish definitively that this coin is the coin cited. It does stand a good chance of being 1533, however Michel Prieur was known to purchase coins of this series after his book was published in 2000. My Trajan Decius Tetradrachm cited in another CT thread on Decius is one such. It was purchased by him after it was published in McAlee. I do not have a tetradrachm minted at Tyre but I do have this
Caracalla Ar Tetradrachm 208-209 AD Laodicea ad Mare Obv. Head right laureate Rv Eagle standing facing head left Prieur 1153 This coin illustrated 13.90 grms 27 mm Photo by W. Hansen In the write up in Triton XXII Lot 672 The coin is cited as being illustrated in Prieur.

 

This, by the way, is the CNG 2019 specimen, "from the Michael Prieur Collection," of the type I just purchased:



Obviously not the same specimen as mine (which is on a smaller flan), although I think it's definitely an obverse die-match. I'm not sure about the reverse. The obverse appears slightly superior to mine (unless that's a product of the photographs), but some of the details on the reverse (like the murex shell and the club) are actually clearer on my specimen.

Since the CNG coin came from the Prieur Collection and the Freeman & Sear auction before that, and since Prieur apparently knew of only one example, then it seems to me that logically it must be the same coin as Prieur 1533, even though that catalog number isn't illustrated in Prieur (see @Terence Cheesman's comment). Which would make my coin only the second known specimen rather than the third. As they say, though, there's nothing more common than a rare ancient coin!

 

You said "Also, if anyone has a copy of Prieur, what distinguishes this particular type from other Septimius Severus tetradrachms manufactured in Tyre?"

That's a good question which I can't answer. But I can add to your question another one: why is your coin 1533 and not 1534 like this one?

https://cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=312786

 

Because the obverse of 1534 is described as a laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Septimius Severus, whereas the obverse of 1533 (my coin) is just a laureate head without more? The reverses appear to be the same.

 

The source Prieur cites for his 1533: M & M List 250, lot 95.

Presumably illustrated in that M & M list, but unfortunately I can't locate the volumes of bound M & M lists that I think Harlan Berk has in his library.

Prieur lists only three types of Tyrian tetradrachm of Septimius:

Obv. Bust of emperor laureate, draped, cuirassed r., rev. laureate bust r. of Heracles-Melqart, Prieur 1528, "Presentation Issue. 209-211", 4 spec.

Same obv. type, rev. Eagle standing as on your coin, Prieur 1534, "Regular Issue, 209-211", 12 spec.

Your coin, as last but with head of emperor laureate r. rather than bust draped and cuirassed on obv., Prieur 1533, 1 spec. listed as described above.

 

So you got a unique new die combination

 

Unless mine is a double-die match with the other Prieur 1533, pictured above. As I said, the obverses definitely match but I'm not sure if the reverses do. [Edited to add -- they don't; see @dougsmit's comment and my response below on the subject of the presence or absence of dots in the reverse legend.]

 

How exciting and beautiful coin Donna!
I've nothing like it, but will share a rare Julia Domna coin that is listed as having Herakles on it, but I'm convinced it's Septy as Herakles:

CILICIA. Irenopolis-Neronias. Julia Domna, Augusta, (193-217 AD)
AE Bronze, (19.7 mm, 4.84 g,) year ΔMP (144) = 194-195.
Obv: IOYΛIA ΔOMNA CEB Draped bust of Julia Domna to right.
Rev: IPЄNOΠΟΛITΩN ETO ΔMP Veiled and bearded head of Herakles to right. Karbach 55. SNG France 2265. SNG Levante 1612. very fine.

 

Tet from Tyre:

 

Great pickup Donna! I think that the Tyre mint had some of the best portraits on provincial tets of this era...yours is certainly a beauty. Here are my examples from Tyre:


Caracalla, Tetradrachm, Phoenicia (Tyre) mint, (27mm., 13.70g) Laureate head r./Rev. Eagle standing facing on club r., head and tail l., holding wreath in beak; between legs, murex shell. Prieur 1535.


Macrinus, Phoenicia (Tyre), BI tetradrachm, (25 mm, 12.52 g). ΑΥΤ•ΚΑΙ•Μ•ΟΠ•CЄ• ΜΑΚΡΙΝΟC•CЄ• Laureate head of Macrinus to right./ Rev. Eagle with spread wings standing facing on club, head to left and holding wreath in beak; between the eagle's legs, murex shell. Prieur 1554.

This one isn't quite as pretty, but it's always been one of my favorites:


Caracalla, Phoenicia (Tyre), AR Tetradrachm (27mm, 15.23 g). Struck AD 213-215. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Eagle standing facing on club right, head and tail left, with wings spread, holding wreath in beak; murex shell between legs. Prieur 1550.
From the Michel Prieur Collection.

 

Nice coin, scraggy beard and all, Donna.

This is my lone Septimius Severus tetradrachm, via Roma. All of his tetradrachms are scarce to rare, and you do have a very rare example from Tyre.

Septimius Severus AR Tetradrachm of Laodicea ad Mare, Seleucis and Pieria. AD 209-211. AVT KAI CEOYHPOC CE, laureate and draped bust right / ΔHMAPX EΞ VΠATOC Γ, eagle standing facing, head left, with wings spread, holding wreath in beak; star between legs. Prieur 1140; McAlee, Severan, Group 2, 16. 15.42g, 25mm, 12h.

Good Very Fine.

From the inventory of a European dealer.

 

So, why the murex shell on all these Tyre coins?

 

Donna, Nice score on your Severus Tet ! I encountered the same dilemma with the coin pictured below . The coin was listed as Prieur 451 (copyright 2000) with no photo when I bought it. When McAlee's book was printed (copyright 2007), an example was illustrated as McAlee 959, Ex. Rare. Prieur cited only 1 example. My coin is a reverse die match with McAlee 959, but the obverse die is different, so there are at least 2 examples known of the type.

The coin pictured below is a Tyre Tet of Geta I won at a Heritage auction a couple of ears ago, it falls in the same date range as your coin.



The Tet of Septimius Severus pictured bellow I won from a Freeman & Sear auction at least 25 years ago. The portrait style is similar to your coin.

 

The murex shell was a valuable commodity to the Romans, it was used to make the purple die for the imperial family clothing .

 

I looked into that when gathering info for a writeup of a Phoenician dishekel. The purple dye made from murex snails was a source of revenue and pride for the whole kingdom.

From that writeup, https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancients-a-coin-from-the-purple-people.250752/ :


The murex shell represents Phoenicia’s namesake and prized product: purple dye. Manufactured from decomposed sea snails, the resulting purple dye is remarkably colorfast. Items dyed with Tyrian Purple in ancient times still retain their color today. Historical records indicate Phoenician purple dye was worth its weight in silver in some trading locales. Royal purple indeed; you’d have to be wealthy to afford a purple garment.

Mythologic tradition credits the discovery this dye to Herakles’s dog. Per second century mythographer Julius Pollox, Herakles was strolling on the beach and noticed his dog chewing on a rotting murex snail. The dog’s mouth was stained vibrant purple. Rubens painted the scene but apparently he didn’t study marine biology. The sea snail in this painting is a nautilus, not a murex.

 

Because, according to Wikipedia, crushing the shell yielded the famous Phoenician royal purple color, which made the cloth dyed in this color so famous and valued in the ancient world.

 

Thanks to all of you who explained the murex shell. I thought it might be something like that. As good as a mint mark when present, it seems.

 

There is a dot at 11 o'clock between X and E on the CNG coin. Another is between O and gamma at 4. There are a bit different spacings so the dots are not just lost? The CNG coin has a draped bust rather than bare.
I do not have the book. Is Prieur a die study or a list of types? Most type catalogs would separate the two bust types if not the dots.

 

Thank you. I think the dots you mention -- which I hadn't noticed -- are on the reverse of my specimen of Prieur 1533, and CNG's specimen of Prieur 1534, but not on CNG's specimen of Prieur 1533. Anyway, I suppose this shows that my and CNG's specimens of Prieur 1533 are not reverse die matches. Perhaps my specimen is a reverse die match to CNG's Prieur 1534?

From the CNG description, Prieur 1534 is the one with a draped and cuirassed bust, which seems to be the primary distinction between the two types.

I don't have Prieur, so I can't answer your question about it and don't know if it mentions the dots in the reverse legend of 1534. The CNG description of that coin says nothing about the dots.