Coin search results - "hellenistic gold"
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(BC 43-16) Asander - AV Stater757 viewsAsander, as king, ca 43-16 BC. AV Stater (19mm, 7.99g, 11h). Dated RY 27 (21/0 BC). Diademed head right / BAΣIΛEΩΣ AΣANΔPOY, Nike, holding wreath in extended right hand, palm frond in left, standing left on prow left; ZK (date) to inner left. VF, fields smoothed. Very rare. Ex Drewry Coll. (CNG 67, 9/2004, lot 620); Stevenson Coll. (CNG XXVI, 6/1993, lot 78); Sotheby's (5/1984), lot 96.
After defeating Pharnakes II in 47 BC, Asander hoped that Caesar would recognize him as king of Bosporos. Instead, in 46 BC Caesar appointed Mithradates of Pergamon, the illegitimate son of Mithradates VI Eupator and a personal friend. Asander, however, subsequently defeated and killed Mithradates. To support his claim to the throne, Asander married Dynamis, the daughter of Pharnakes II, but for the first four years of his reign, he claimed the title ‘archon’ only, rather than that of ‘basileus.’ The reason for this may be that as Rome had formally recognized the archon Pharnakes II as king, Asander was hoping they would do the same on his behalf – a hope confirmed by Octavian in 43 BC. Consequently, all of Asander’s regnal dates are reckoned from his first year as archon (circa 47/6 BC).
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(BC 63-46) Pharnakes II - AV Stater797 viewsPharnakes II, ca 63-46 BC. AV Stater (19.5mm, 8.19g, 1h). Pantikapaion mint. Dated Bosporan Era 245 (53/2 BC). Diademed head right / BAΣIΛEΩΣ BAΣIΛ-EΩN MEΓAΛOY ΦAPNAKOY, Apollo seated left on lion-footed throne, holding branch in extended right hand, left arm resting on kithara; tripod to left; to right, EMΣ (date) above monogram. EF, slightly weak strike, some die wear. Very rare.
Pharnakes was awarded the Bosporan Kingdom by Pompey, for the betrayal of his father Mithradates VI, King of Pontos. Little is known of his 16-year reign except for its ending. During the Civil War between Pompey and Julius Caesar, Pharnakes tried to recapture his father's former territories in Pontos. He won a victory over Caesar's general, Domitius Calvinus, and ordered Romans in the region castrated or put to the sword. In response, Caesar launched a rapid five day war against Pharnakes in 47 BC, culminating in the battle of Zela. Caesar emerged victorious, prompting him to report back to the Senate with the now famous dictum, "Veni, Vidi, Vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered).
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(BC 120-63) Mithradates VI - AV Stater6431 viewsMithradates VI, 120-63 BC. AV Stater (8.46g). Pergamon mint. Dated year 4 of Pergamene Era (86/85 BC); struck during the First Mithradatic War. Diademed head right, hair tousled and flowing freely / Stag grazing left; pellet below, star and crescent to left, D (date) to right, monogram in exergue; all within Dionysiac wreath of ivy and fruit. Good VF, minor scrape in reverse field. Very rare.
Mithradates' career driven by megalomaniacal ambitions leading to murderous assaults upon family and followers and disastrous foreign adventures against superior forces. His idealized portraiture attempts to mimic the gods with its bold staring gaze and unruly, free-flowing hair. The wreath of ivy on the reverse reinforces Mithradates' link with the gods as well as making a connection with the cistaphoric coinage that formerly circulated in the Asian territory he conquered in his first war with Rome in 88 BC, which witnessed the horrific massacre of the Roman citizens of Asia Minor. The stag probably represents the civic center of Ephesos and the mintmark is of Pergamon, all part of the new Pontic kingdom, symbolized by the star and crescent.
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(BC 120-63) Mithradates VI - AV Stater2674 viewsca 120-63 BC. AV Stater (22mm, 8.45g, 12h). Pergamon mint. Dated month 12, year 223 BE (September 74 BC). Diademed head right / Stag grazing left; BAΣIΛEΩΣ above, MIΘPAΔATOY EYΠATOPOΣ in two lines below; to left, star-in-crescent above ΓKΣ (year); two monograms to right, IB (month) in exergue; all within Dionysiac wreath of ivy and fruit. Near EF, a few light marks. Superb high relief portrait, boldly struck and beautifully centered on a broad flan. A unique example, the latest known stater from his reign.
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(BC 169-150) Laodike - AV Stater4945 viewsLaodike Epiphanes Philadelphos, wife of Mithradates IV of Pontos, 169-150 BC. AV Stater (8.49g). Diademed and veiled bust of Laodike left / ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΙΣ / ΛΑΟΔΙΚΙΣ / ΕΠΙΦΑÎΟΥΣ ΚΑΙ / ΦΙΛΑΔΕΛΦΟΥ, banded double cornucopiae filled with fruit, six-rayed star above, monogram to right. Unique and unpublished. EF.
This important piece portraits the daughter of Mithradates III of Pontus as a young woman (she is depicted as a more mature woman on Tetradrachms). This Stater has a certain parallel to an also unique Stater of Mithradates IV (see SNG von Aulock 4), which shows the inauguration of the newly wedded brother and sister. The son of Laodike's older brother Pharnakes (successor of Mithradates III), Mithradates V, was too young to succeed his father to the throne. Because of this, Mithradates IV and Laodike, his sister and wife, took over Pontic government around 169 BC. Two more ladies come into question for the portraited woman: the wife of Mithradates V (daughter of Antiochos IV of Syria) and the daughter of Mithradates V of Pontos, who were also called Laodike.
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(BC 200-169) Pharnakes III - AV Stater2322 viewsPharnakes III, ca 200-169 BC. AV Stater (19.5mm, 8.47g, 12h). Amisos mint. Diademed head right / BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΦAPNAKOY, male figure, wearing flat headdress, holding cornucopia in right hand, vine branch in left, from which a deer, standing right, feeds, on his left; MH monogram to inner right. Good VF, light scuff and edge mark on reverse. Unique. Adams coll.; ex Ley Coll. Lanz 70 (11/1994), lot 81; Tkalec & Rauch (4/1989), lot 105; Leu 22 (5/1979), lot 116; Kastner 4 (11/1973), lot 52.
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Ephesos (BC 88-86) AV Stater2062 viewsca 88-86 BC. AV Stater (8.45g, 12h). Bust of Artemis right, wearing stephane; bow and quiver over shoulder / ΕΦΕ-ΣΙΩ[Î], cult statue of Artemis Ephesia facing; bee in field to left. VF. Very rare. Ex Leu 22 (1979), 132; Numismatic Fine Arts 2 (1976), 209 and Kastner 4 (1973), 110.
Since 133 BC, Ephesos belonged to the Roman province of Asia and suffered from the shameless exploitation of the Roman tax collector. In 88 BC, the city revolted and went over to Mithridates VI of Pontos, who, in the so-called Asiatic Vespers, massacred thousands of Roman citizens. To pay his mercenaries, Mithradates struck large quantities of gold staters of traditional Ephesian types, but few specimens exist today.
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Kios (BC 350-300) AV 1/6 Stater - Herodoros808 viewsca 350-300 BC. AV 1/4 Siglos (1.43g, 10mm). Herodoros, magistrate. Laureate head of Apollo right / HPO / ΔΩΡΟΣ, prow left. gVF. Extremely rare denomination.
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Kios (BC 350-300) AV Stater - Proxenos1347 viewsca 350-300 BC. AV Stater (8.60g, 12h). Proxenos, magistrate. Head of Apollo right, wearing laurel wreath / Prow of galley left, decorated with star; above, club right; to left, eagle standing left; ΠPOΞENO[Σ] below. Good VF, some die rust, obverse a little off center. Extremely rare. This magistrate is only known on two examples of Kios staters, both in museums (Paris and Berlin).
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Kios (BC 350-300) AV Stater - Proxenos1328 viewsca 350-300 BC. AV Stater (17mm, 8.53g, 1h). Proxenos, magistrate. Head of Apollo right, wearing laurel wreath / Prow of galley left, decorated with star; above, club right; to left, eagle standing left; ΠPOΞENOΣ below. VF. Well centered. Very rare.
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Marion (BC 330-312) AV Obol - Stasoikos II1296 viewsStasoikos II, King of Marion, 330-312 BC. AV 1/12th Stater (0.85g). Head of Zeus left / head of Aphrodite right.
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Marion (BC 330-312) AV Triobol - Stasoikos1082 viewsStasoikos II, King of Marion, 330-312 BC. AV Triobol (2.02g). Head of Zeus left / Head of Aphrodite right, M[A] behind. VF. Very rare.
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Pergamon (BC 335-330) Stater1868 viewsMid-late 330s BC. AV Stater (8.60g, 17mm, 1h). Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Archaistic Palladion: statue of Pallas Athena standing facing, holding spear aloft in right hand, preparing to strike, on left arm, a shield adorned with a four-point star and fillet hanging below; to lower left, a crested Corinthian helmet right; all within concave circular incuse. Superb EF, fully lustrous.
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Rhodes (BC 125-88) AV 1/4 Stater1602 viewsca 125-88 BC. AV 1/4 Stater (12mm, 2.10g, 12h). Diogne(tos), magistrate. Radiate head of Helios right / Rose with bud to right; ΔIOΓNH above, P-O flanking, crested helmet to lower left. Near EF, tiny die break on obverse, slight die shift on reverse, slight wave in flan. Well centered obverse. Very rare. Ex Gorny & Mosch 190 (10/2010), lot 285.
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Salamis (BC 331-310) AV Stater - Nikokreon1434 viewsNikokreon, ca 331-311/10 BC. AV Stater (8.29g). Persic standard. Draped bust of Aphrodite left, hair rolled above forehead and falling in long wavy strands to front and back of shoulder, wearing beaded necklace, triple-drop earring, and turreted crown, NI behind / Draped bust of Aphrodite left, hair in tight ringlets falling before ear and down back of neck, wearing torque (open end at front of her neck), beaded hoop earring, fillet, and crown decorated with semicircular plates; BA behind. EF. Very rare.
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