Luck was with me at the CNG 453 E-Auction, & I managed to score two more coins from the Michel Prieur collection. The first coin pictured below is an odd shaped Tet of Elagabalus missing much of the detail from the dies but good enough to identify. What drew my eye immediately was the beautifully rendered portrait of the young prince (about 15 years old). Most of his provincial coin portraits are pretty uninteresting but this one stood out with the laureate, draped and cuirassed bust seen from the front. The reverse shows an eagle with a laurel wreath in his beak standing over a star or sun symbol. The Greek letters indicating the four eparchies are on either side of the eagles head. Prieur believed the bulk of Tets made for Elagabalus had a limited number of celators cutting the obverse dies, most likely from the mint of Antioch. Other mints striking Tets for this emperor were Emesa, Carrhae, and Laodicea ad Mare. McAlee lists this issue as Rare. The next coin has a handsome portrait of Philip II as Augustus, struck at the Antioch Mint. The young prince (about 13 years old) is wearing a radiate crown and has a cuirassed bust facing left. The reverse depicts an eagle holding a laurel wreath in its beak. All the inscriptions on this coin are Greek except the ANTIOXIA SC, on the reverse which is Latin. Only two coins of this type are known to exist with none listed in Coin Archives.
