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Message:: [QUOTE="Ed Snible, post: 2931097, member: 82322"]I don't have any star of Bethlehem coins.  Here is a coin that I believe depicts two comets. [ATTACH=full]711732[/ATTACH] Paphlagonia, Sinope. circa 120-100 BC, Æ15, 4.58g.Obv: Winged and draped bust (of Mithradites or Perseus?) right.Rev: [Σ]INΩΠHΣ. Cornucopia flanked by piloi surmounted by stars (or comets?).Ref: Lindgren and Kovacs 91, SNG Black Sea 1520-, SNG Stancomb 791. In the year Mithridates was born, comets appeared in the constellation of Pegasus. Justinus, a 4th-century historian, reports that “it burned so brightly for 70 days that the entire sky seemed to be on fire.” In 119 BCE, when the 15-year-old Mithridates deposed his mother and seized the throne for himself, another comet appeared.  Justin's account of the two comets was based on lost history by Pompeius Trogus whose uncle, a cavalry officer from the Vocontian tribe of Gaul, fought in the Mithradatic wars. There are several coins of Mithridates depicting "stars", sometimes with curved tails.  Some of them are believed to illustrate the comets.  This particular design is said to depict "caps of the Dioscuri" and not usually connected with the comets.  To me the comet connection seems obvious.  This bust could be the teenage Mithridates, immediately upon seizing the throne of Pontus.[/QUOTE]