I was delighted to acquire my first Cistophoric Tetradrachm this week. It has been cleaned at some point and as such is quite bright, but the well-struck, centralised reverse really appealed to me. While the obverse is off-struck and quite flat, the die was obviously worn. I have it as follows - awaiting Lucia Carbone's 'Hidden Power' reference book at Christmas: Cistophoric Tetradrachm, struck at Pergamon c. 104-98 BC. Obverse: no legend, snake crawling from Cista Mystica within ivy wreath. Reverse: two snakes opposed, coiled around bowcase - civic monogram ΠE to left, serpent wrapped around thrysos to right, control marks MH above. Diameter: 27mm. Weight: 12.7g. Kleiner 21 (Pergamon).
Great looking snakes! Better than mine (from Ephesos): I don't have L. Carbone's Hidden Power yet, but it sounds great. I've seen her talk about the topic on the ANS zoom presentations and seen some of her articles on Cistophors and other early Roman era coins in Asia. If you haven't seen it, some of her articles/essay are available on her Academia (the PDF for the book is just the front matter): https://numismatics.academia.edu/LuciaCarbone
