175, Lot: 99. Estimate $200. Sold for $320. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of CAPPADOCIA. Ariarathes IX Eusebes Philopator. Circa 100-85 BC. AR Drachm (18mm, 4.08 g, 12h). Mint A (Eusebeia-Mazaka). Dated RY 4 (97/6 BC). Diademed head right, with the features of Mithradates VI of Pontos / Athena Nikephoros standing left; monogram to inner left, D (date) in exergue. Simonetta 3a; Callataÿ p. 181 (D2/R-); SNG Copenhagen 880 (same obv. die); SNG von Aulock 6305. Good VF, attractive toning around the devices. Rare rendition of portrait.

Ariarathes IX was the son of the Pontic King Mithradates VI. Mithradates murdered his nephew Ariarathes VII, and placed his 8-year-old son on the throne of Cappadocia. According to Mørkholm (in Essays Robinson and QT 1975), the obverses on the last two years of Ariarathes' mint A coinage carried a portrait of the Pontic king rather than his son. The purpose of the change is uncertain, but it may have been done in relation to the revolt of Ariarathes VIII. Ariarathes VIII was the brother of Ariarathes VII, who was living in exile in the Roman province of Asia. Mørkholm believed that a group of Cappadocian nationalists revolted against the Pontic king, and recalled Ariarathes VIII, who they promoted as king. This revolt was quickly suppressed. As a reaction to this event, it is possible that Mithradates had his portriat placed upon the coinage as a more overt pronouncement of his rule over the Cappadocians via his son.