Rare Roman Provincials

That’s a very nice group of Antioch coins, and wonderfully presented!

 

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Hi All,

Britanicus in Egypt. Denomination & subject matter for Alexandria is rare:



Claudius (25 Jan 41 - 12 Oct 54 CE)
Alexandria Egypt
Bi Didrachm
Size: 20 mm
Weight: 4.00 g
Axis: 00:00

OBV: Claudius laureate draped bust facing right. Legend: [TIKΛAYKAI] - CEBACΓEPM. In right field: LΓ. Dotted border.
REV: Cornucopiea (double) with Britanicus and Octavia heads above, Antonia head between them facing right. Below Antonia in two lines: AYTO - KPA. Dotted border.

Refs: Emmett-75.03; Geissen-Unlisted; Dattari-118, pl i; Curtis-6; Staffieri Alexandria In Nummis #6; Also see B Lichocka, Claudius's Issue of Silver Didrachms in Alexandria: Emperor’s Children and Crossed Cornucopias (PDF available here), Ètudes et Travaux XXVI (Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, 2013), pp 428-445.

Lichocka (2013): "In the third year of Emperor Claudius’s reign (AD 42/43) the Alexandrian mint issued a silver didrachms with the motif on the reverse of crossed cornucopias surmounted by confronted busts and a third bust in the middle. The busts above the cornucopias have been attributed to the emperor’s daughters: Claudia Antonia and Claudia Octavia, daughters of Aelia Paetina and Valeria Messalina, his second and third wife respectively. The third bust facing right was the youngest of the siblings, Britannicus, son of Claudius and Messalina. The large upper part of each cornucopia has a profiled edge, the lower part is decorated with two spreading leaves. The inscription under the bust of Britannicus, between the cornucopias, AYTO/KPA, is typical of legends on coins of Claudius minted in Alexandria. The obverse bears a bare head of Claudius turned to the right and the legend TIB KΛAY KAI CEBAC ΓEPM; the date in front of the head is LΓ. The issue, considered as 'experimental' and known from a few dozen specimens, coincided with the issue of silver drachmas depicting a bust of Serapis on the reverse."

CNG Triton XXI Stafierri: "An extremely rare coin, and the only collectible didrachm (billon or otherwise) issued in Alexandria during the Roman Imperial period. (Erik Christiansen in The Roman Coins of Alexandria lists two unique didrachms for Nero, regnal years 3 and 4, the first in Athens, the second in Berlin.) Claudius also issued a billon drachm (RPC I 5136), which is of equal rarity."

Bought from David Hendin (Amphora) in 2000 @ NYINC Show.

- Broucheion

 

Yes, the Roma Auction XIX Auction lots had very strong bids. I was somewhat surprised given our current economic circumstance and raging pandemic.

 

I don't known. Agon in Greek is the root of our agony of and is the word for contest but I don't know what that means in the context of this coin. It is not listed in Sears Greek Imperials though he does list one with the same obverse, but a very different reverse. There is also some inscription on the urn which is quite small and worn and I cannot make it out. Anybody?

 

An agonistic urn was a prize awarded for the winner of a contest. The urn on your coin is supposedly inscribed HPAKΛHA / ΟΛYMΠIA. In your coin's case, I believe ΟΛYMΠIA is retrograde; I don't know about the HPAKΛHA.

 

Congrats on picking up a great rarity Sulla80, fantastic coin. My rarest provincial is probably this Macedon about Gordian 111 timeframe, not published in standard references and hardly ever seen. Roman Provincial. MACEDON. Koinon of Macedonia. Pseudo-autonamous 222 AD to 249 AD
. Æ (27mm, 11.19 g, 6h). Beroea mint.
OBV: AΛEΞANΔPOC bust of Alexander the Great right, flowing hair.
REV: KOINMA KE ΔONΩN.B.NE Two tetrastyle temple façades; in field between, column surmounted by statue.
Unpublished in the standard references. VF, green surfaces, ragged edge, some smoothing and roughness. Also rare is this radiate type from GORDIAN III. DEULTUM THRACE AE 23 Cult statue of Aphrodite & vase within tetrastyle temple viewed in perspective. Varbanov 2277.

 

Another Macrinus, hope I am not boring you

Judaea, Capitolias, Decapolis
SNG ANS 1275 apparently same dies ( not done homework ) only ref
30mm - 13.79g
Reverse - Zeus seatd within octastyle temple, holding Eagle ? in RH & Sceptre in LH
Propylaeus on top of temple


Picture courtesy of www.romanumismatics.com

 

Thanks RC, I wondered about retrograde - no doubt that it is very similar to this example with murex shell at bottom - but can't make out the lettering on the basket (urn) of @kevin McGonigal's coin. Leu describes as "celebrating the Olympian games held in honor of Herakles in Tyre".

Clearly no shortage of rare provincial coins in the collections of CT members, love the Alexander III portrait and the reverse.

 

Thanks. I wondered about that. Olympia makes sense but why the Heraklea. Did someone from Heraklea win the urn?

 

Rachel Barkay in her corpus of coins of Nysa-Skythopolis considered types with more than 10 known examples common. By this definition I would say half of my coins are rare - my focus is city coins of Judaea, Arabia and Decapolis. Like this one, from Sepphoris under Elagabalus is known in about five examples.

 

Two rare and to my mind interesting provincials. One cost $28 and the other $708. Why the vast difference? IDK ... but that's our hobby for you!


CARACALLA
Unpublished and possibly second known. AE16. 2.62g, 16.4mm. THRACE, Trajanopolis, circa AD 198-217. Schönert-Geiss, Augusta Traiana –; Varbanov –; CNG 320, Lot 282. O: AVT K M AYP CE ANTΩNEINOC, laureate head right. R: TΡAIANOΠO-ΛEITΩN, Infant Herakles, kneeling right, strangling a serpent with each hand.


VALERIAN
Rare. AE27. 13.98g, 27.3mm. PHOENICIA, Tyre, circa AD 253-260. Rouvier 2500. O: IMP C P LIC VALERIANVS AVG, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right. R: TVRIORVM, Cadmus standing left, holding patera and spear; at feet to left, cow reclining right; in left field, city gate of Thebes above ΘH/BЄ; murex shell to right.

 

Both words are retrograde.

The grooves strike me as pre-striking flan production. Does anyone else have an opinion on this? Such things will cut down on the number of competitors desiring the coin (therefore cheaper) but make it no less interesting.

 

Hercules / Herakles rather than the town.

 

Thanks. Actually, I had wondered if somebody just did not like Tyre. Maybe woke up in a back alley with purse gone, except for this one coin. Why the pre strike flan production grooves. It certainly seems an odd coin to remove metal from to keep the weight down.

 

Thanks for sharing your coin - a nice illustration of the "normal" high rarity of a specialized provincial collection.

 

Interesting coins @zumbly, great variety in the coins shared overall. Also, a good reminder that the pricing on a unique or "extremely rare" coin isn't very predictable.

 

Here's a rarer one from Commodus:

RPC
Volume IV
Number 1178 (temporary)
Province Asia: Conventus of Pergamum
Region Lydia
City Attalea
Reign Commodus
Person Commodus (Augustus)
Date c. 188-192
Obverse inscription ΑV ΚοΜοΔοС
Obverse design laureate-headed bust of Commodus wearing cuirass and paludamentum, r.
Reverse inscription ΑΤΤΑΛƐΑΤΩΝ
Reverse design eagle standing on line, facing, head, l., spreading wings
Type reference BMC 19, LS 45, no. 1

 

Thank you for pointing this out. The OP coin is now here.

 

Antoninus Pius. 138-161 AD. Creteia-Flaviopolis, Bithynia and Pontus. Æ 17; 3.7 gm. Obv: AYT KAICAP ANTΩNIN(OC), His laureate and draped bust, r. Rev: (KPHT)IEΩΝ ΦΛ(ΑΟ)ΥΙΟ. Nude Pan seated on a rock, facing, head l., holding syrinx and grasping reed representing the transformed nymph Syrinx. Pan was the god of the wild, hunting and companion of the nymphs. He was depicted as being half human, while having the legs and horns of a goat, as can be seen on this coin. Pan's body is covered with hair/fur, which is apparently unique to this representation of Pan on an ancient coin. Unpublished and unique, as of this writing, though this coin will be published in RPC IV. It is currently included in the online publication as no. 11098 (Temporary)

 

Cool! I'm glad you submitted it!