Elaiousa-Sebaste (BC 93-84) Tetradrachm

ca 93-84 BC. AR Tetradrachm (15.82g, 1h). Turreted and veiled head of Tyche right / Female (Aphrodite?) standing left, holding tiller; monogram and aplustre to outer left, ZH to inner left. Near EF, toned, areas of slight roughness. Extremely rare. From the Garth R. Drewry Collection. Ex Triton VI (1/2003), lot 441; Tkalec and Rauch (11/1987), lot 141.

Seven tetradrachms of Elaiussa are apparently known: Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale; Washington, Smithsonian (broken); London, British Museum; SNG Levante Supp. 221; CNG 36, lot 2037; CNG 45, lot 475; and the present specimen. According to Houghton and Bendall, the present piece appeared in 1986 in a hoard which also included seven Aegeae tetradrachms. The issue is to be dated after c. 95-94 BC, when Seleukos VI struck coins at Elaiussa, but before 83 BC, when Tigranes extinguished the city's independent existence. Elaiussa was an island in antiquity but is now joined to the mainland.