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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 1849216, member: 42773&quot;]Here&#039;s a type that I&#039;ve been hunting since last summer. Although a handful of pieces have come on the market since then, this is the first coin that satisfied my aesthetics as far as the engraving style goes. On many of these issues, Trajan&#039;s portrait gets all the artistic attention, while the camel is drawn quite simplistically. The engraver of this coin gave the camel some serious work as well, although the portrait is a bit &quot;off&quot; compared to mainstream depictions of the emperor. That isn&#039;t unusual, however, in provincial types, and the bust is well-done regardless of its inaccuracy.</p><p><br /></p><p>Trajan annexed the Nabataean kingdom after the death of Rabbel II, to create <i>Provincia Arabia</i>, moving the capitol of the Southern Levantine empire from Petra to the new capitol of the Roman province, Bostra. Various sources suggest that many Nabataean drachms were either struck over by Roman types, or melted and refined to produce silver of higher fineness for the various drachms of Bostra. This might account for the scarcity of late Nabataean silver.</p><p><br /></p><p>Trajan, 98-117</p><p>AR Drachm, 17mm, 3.37g, Bostra: 114-116</p><p><i>Obv.:</i> [AVTOKP] KAIC NEP TPAIANW APICTW CEB ΓEPM ΔAK; Laureate, dr. and cuir. bust r.</p><p><i>Rev.:</i> ΔHMAPX EΞ [VΠATOS]; Bactrian (two-humped) camel to left</p><p>Reference: SNG ANS 1058</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://postimage.org/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://postimage.org/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://s8.postimg.org/ne1ajat8l/trajan_arabia.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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