Phoenician Tetradrachm of Caracalla

PHOENICIA, Ace-Ptolemais, Caracalla, AD 198-217 (struck AD 215-217). Obverse: Laureate bust facing right. Reverse: Eagle standing facing front, head & tail facing right, holding wreath in beak; caps of the Dioscuri between eagle's legs. Billon Tetradrachm: 14.33 gm, 26 mm, 11 h. Prieur 1225. Ex CNG 118, lot 753, "Father & Son Collection", September 13/14, 2021. Ex Heritage Auction 3038, lot 33154, January 15, 2015, sold by Heritage encapsulated by NGC.




Ptolemais is also known as Akko, Akre, Ake, & during the Middle Ages as Acre. The name was changed to Antiochia Ptolemais after Alexander the Great conquered the city, then to Ptolemais after Ptolemy I Soter gained control of the area. Under emperor Claudius it became a colony in southern Roman Phoenicia, & the name was changed to Colonia Claudia Felix Ptolemais Garmanica Stabilis. The variety of names has led to some confusion when trying to research coins from this area . For the sake of simplicity I'll refer to the city as Ptolemais.


Map showing the location of Ptolemais.

Ptolemais was an important port city used by the Romans to crush the 1st & 2nd Jewish revolts, & was used to settle military veterans & their families. This coin type was struck at the Ptolemais mint to pay legionnaires for Caracalla's proposed war against the Persians, & nearly all the other mints in the Levant struck coinage with the image of Caracalla for the same reason. Most of the coins struck at the Ptolemais mint are by no means scarce, but they are less common than the tetradrachms struck at the northern mints. High grade, well struck coins that haven't been over-cleaned can be expensive.

I spotted this coin a week before CNG Feature Auction 118, & it looked very familiar, a Deja vu moment perhaps . After locating it in Heritage archives it all came back to me . I had left a pre-bid on the coin 6 years ago & was outbid by someone else. That someone else turned out to be the "Father & Son Collection" who won the coin for $881.25. CNG had a typical low estimate on the coin for $500.00, never the less I left a bid of $750.00 on the coin with no hope of winning the coin. A day after the auction I received an email from CNG stating I won the coin ! It looks like I'll be the caretaker of this coin for a while . It appears that the Father & Son collection didn't like slabs & freed the coin from the encapsulation. Why CNG didn't state the slab info on their description puzzles me , if anything it would have enhanced the status of the coin. So be it.... I have no intention of getting the coin slabbed again since I have documentation that it was slabbed before. Presently it resides in a Safe-flip. Both CNG & Heritage misattributed the coin to Prieur 1223, in fact it is Prieur 1225, a less common variety than Prieur 1223. After browsing through CNG archives I located this coin type with a correct attribution, from CNG 241, lot 219, September 29, 2010. Comparing the two coins it appears that there is an obverse die match .



Photos courtesy of CNG, Heritage, & Wikipedia.

If any CT members have Phoenician tetradrachms of Caracalla, you're welcome to post them on this thread .

 

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That's a beauty Al, great pickup! My two favorite tetradrachms in my collection are both from Phoenicia (Tyre mint), I'm always happy to have a reason to post these. In my opinion, some of the most talented engravers of that time were in Phoenicia.

Also, happy to see that yours is no longer in a slab ...these are such thick coins, some of my favorites to have in hand.

(Pictured with some Imperial silver for scale)

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.



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.

 

I love these Syro-Phoenician tetradrachms, the portraits are always impressive.
I admit not worrying too much about the workshop as long as the style pleases me.

CARACALLA, Tetradrachm
Antioch, 214-215
13.80 g - 26 mm
Prieur 217
AYT K.M.A. .ANTΩNꞒINOC CꞒB, Laureate bust right
.ΔHMAPX.ꞒΞ.YΠA.TO.Δ, Eagle facing, head right

 

Beroea (Aleppo)


Antioch


Antioch


When I bought this i was IDed as "Cyprus or Akko". Now?

 

I did a reshoot of my crude, scruffy, dark, encrusted, somewhat corroded billon tetradrachm of Tyre, with an odd hair style. The hair seems to flare out to the back of the neck and above his brow. Is there a sign of a lion headdress in the middle? I don't know if this supposed to be a kind of style harkening to Alexander III, but it is fun to speculate.

I think this is a late minting, towards the end of his turbulent reign.

11.35 grams

 

Shea, Your first Tet of Caracalla has a lovely portrait & the denarius is a beauty too . The second Tet of Caracalla is oddly crude for the Tyre mint . Caracalla looks like he's ready to bite off someone's head .

 

Alwin, That's a stunning Tet from Antioch ! The Tets from Antioch very in quality from fair to supreme & are often very realistic. On a 1 to 10 scale your Tet is 11 .

 

Doug, That's an interesting quartet of Tets . I like the huge radiate crown on the Aleppo lefty, & the Antioch lefty is a handsome coin . The last Tet is a nice high grade example that doesn't have the style of the Ptolemais mint. Although the mintmark it weak & not well executed (ear of wheat) I'm pretty sure it's a Cyprus mint product.

 

robinjojo, I agree, your Tet looks like a late product of the Tyre mint, & the 2nd Tet that shea posted looks like a late one too . The earlier Tets struck for Caracalla can be quite handsome. The two Tets pictured below I sold a long time ago.

 

Doug, what in blazes is that between your eagles legs? Aleppo.

 

Indeed that is true for Caracalla, as it is for other emperors.

Here's a fairly early tetradrachm from Antioch:



Crabbed age and youth cannot live together:
Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care;
Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather;
Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare.
Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short;
Youth is nimble, age is lame;
Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold;
Youth is wild, and age is tame.
Age, I do abhor thee; youth, I do adore thee;
O, my love, my love is young!
Age, I do defy thee: O, sweet shepherd, hie thee,
For methinks thou stay'st too long.

William Shakespeare.

 

Ryan, It's an unidentified strange looking winged bird . A number of collectors that I've questioned suggest that it's an owl, especially since all examples show two tufts or horns on the head & rather large eyes. It is one of the more unusual mintmarks. Doug's example is one of the best I've seen. Pictured below is a Macrinus Tet from my collection with that mintmark.

 

robinjojo, That's a wonderful portrait of the youthful Caracalla . Pictured below is an example from my collection.

 

PHOENICIA, Tyre. Caracalla. (AD 198-217). AR Tetradrachm. (23mm, 13.64g).
Struck (AD 213-215)
O: ΑΥΤ ΚΑΙ ΑΝΤWΝΙΝΟC CЄ; Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right.
R: ΔΗΜΑΡX ΕΞ ΥΠΑΤΟC ΤΟ Δ; Eagle standing facing on club right, head and tail left, with wings spread, holding wreath in beak; murex shell between legs.

 

Herodotus, I like your Tyre Tet . The engraver has captured a charming smile on the brutish portrait of Caracalla . The image of the murex shell on your coin is unusually strong. The murex shell was a highly prized commodity for the imperial household . It provided the purple die used for their imported silks.

 

That's a great coin Al. I have no Phoenician tets at the moment, but I found this minute bronze of Ake issued in 2nd century BC, jugate Dioscuri and cornucopia...

 

Very nice specimen with clear monogram!

 

Also found this Tet of Caracalla in my old folders. It was struck at Antioch.

 

7Calbrey, I'm not an expert on these coins but I believe your Tet is misattributed. To complicate matters your coin is in rough shape & the photos are sub-par. Your coin appears to be an issue of Elagabalus not Caracalla, & the coin may not be an Antioch product, but Emesa instead. Caracalla did strike similar issues of the "four Eparchies" type with a star in-between the eagle's legs, but all those issues have the eagle head facing to the right. The roughness on the face of your coin creates an illusion of a beard, resembling a portrait of Caracalla. The obverse inscriptions of the two emperors are often identical, complicating a positive ID. Maybe we can get an expert to chime-in on your coin .

 

I did come across a coin I sold earlier in the year that belongs in this thread. Not Ptolemais, but Berytus - further north. Berytus would evolve into the modern capitol of Lebanon, Beirut. Caracalla may have been a real stinker, but his bust certainly made for commanding coins. What's the numismatic equivalent of photogenic? Nummogenic?



PHOENICIA, Berytus.
Caracalla. 197-217 AD.
AR Tetradrachm, 28mm, 13.0g, 12h; Struck AD 215-217.
Obv.: AVT KAI ANTWNINOC CЄB; Laureate bust right.
Rev.: ΔHMAPΧ EΞ YΠATO Δ; Eagle with spread wings standing facing, head left wreath in beak; between legs, prow left.
Reference: Prieur 1292
ex-JAZ Numismatics, ex-DePew Collection.