Only the prow on reverse of this bronze coin suggested to me it's Phoenician. There's a woman walking left while turning her head right. The Emperor on obverse does not look strange to me, but I can't find letters to read there. Please try to shed light on this original an interesting coin. It weighs 9.68 g.
Try- (looks similar!) PHOENICIA, Sidon Trajan 98-117 AD. Laureate head right; IMP NER TRAIN CAESAVG GERM PP. SIDWNOS NAU/ARCIDOS, Kadmos standing left on prow, looking right and pointing left [L] ZKS (date) in left field. SNG Copenhagen 252 BMC Phoenicia pg. 180, 218
Elagabalus (maybe), minted in Sidon I believe. Kadmos running left on prow. Pretty scarce coin - I've never seen one myself in real life.
Arizonarobin is correct. ZKS makes it Trajan. Man, that's a great coin. If it's not yours yet, buy it!
Thanks God it's already mine. And of course thank you for the identification. She @arizonarobin kindly said Trajan not Hadrian. But it's similar to me, since the main issue here is Kadmos. BTW. the other surprise is that I've acquired this coin together with another Phoenician bigger coin. I shall post it soon. Cheers.
It should be Trajan. There are a few in Vcoins to compare. The L in the date seems to be commonly off flan or illegible.
Yes, Trajan, my mistake. Nice find, congratulations! Kadmos was the hero and great slayer of monsters that preceded Hercules, so the iconography references an archaic mythology. I wonder if the later Roman Victory on Prow types were influenced by these coins.
But what does NAY APXIΔOΣ nau/arcidos mean? A term of praise for the city I don't know, or related to seashell - arcidae, arcoida in place of murex?
Oh, probably means maritime city - nauarchides. Only refrence found for this is Ezechiel Spanheim, Dissertationes De Praestantia Et Usu Numismatum Antiquorum, vol. 1, p.688