Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ed Snible, post: 2848684, member: 82322&quot;]Here is the first numismatic depiction of the volcano.</p><p><br /></p><p>This coin doesn&#039;t photograph well due to its low relief and low grade.&nbsp; About the only thing going for it is the original patina.&nbsp; It is very scarce and impossible to find in high grade.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]675631[/ATTACH] </p><p>CAPPADOCIA, Caesaria (AKA Eusebia), 36 BC - 17 AD or 101-89 BC(?), 7.04g, AE17</p><p>Obv: Facing gorgoneion within aegis</p><p>Rev: Mount Argaeus/Argaios, below ΕΥΣΕΒΕΙΑ/Τ</p><p>Lindgren III 945, Sear 5706 </p><p>Purchased from H. C. Lindgren, Summer 2001</p><p><br /></p><p>Imhoof-Blumer believed that this aegis copies aegis/Nike bronzes of Mithradates the Great. The authority who issued these coins is still unclear today. Most authorities attributed to Archelaus, a Roman client and Cappadocia’s last king. H. Herrli believes this coinage was struck after 101 BC when Mithradates the Great’s eight-year-old son Ariarathes IX governed Cappadocia.</p><p><br /></p><p>François de Callataÿ told me “... the attribution to Ariarathes IX is fragile to the extreme and unconvincing since it entirely lays on the reading of a monogram.”</p><p><br /></p><p>I can’t speak on the monogram but the Ariarathes IX attribution seems reasonable. It seems unlikely that Archelous, a Roman puppet, would use one of Mithradates’ coin obverses when there were people still living who remembered that struggle. Herrli’s assignment of the coin to Ariarathes IX, who reigned 101-89 BC, implies that the aegis design was used in Cappadocia directly before its adoption by Mithradates VI on his massive Pontic bronze issue. That is the opposite of Imhoof-Blumer and E. A. Sydenham’s speculation, that the transmission went from Mithradates’ mints to Eusebeia.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in