Rare Damaskos Mint

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 286. Estimate $10000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $11000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of ARMENIA. Tigranes II ‘the Great’. 95-56 BC. AR Tetradrachm (15.39 g, 12h). Damaskos mint. Dated SE 242 (71/0 BC). Diademed and draped bust right, wearing tiara decorated with star and eagle / Tyche of Damaskos seated left on rock, holding branch; below, river-god Orontes swimming facing; to outer left, monogram above hand, QE and OF below; A to inner left, BMS in exergue; all within wreath. SCADA dies A2/P- (unlisted rev. die); CAA 13 = AC 29 (same obv. die as illustration); Araratian Collection (CNG 46), lot 664 (same obv. die). Good VF, lightly toned, light porosity. Extremely rare, the seventh Tigranes tetradrachm from this mint, the third from this year.

Tigranes the Great earned his epithet through a series of military and political successes achieved during his long reign. His numerous victories greatly expanded Armenian territory and power, and included the annexation of Sophene and Commagene, as well as the occupation of western Media, northern Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine. The occupation of lands and his influence over their kings justified his eventual assumption of the typically eastern title 'king of kings'. It was during Tigranes' occupation of Syria, displacing the Seleucid dynasty, that he gained control of the great mint at Antioch. From this mint he issued a large series of portrait tetradrachms, whose dies were crafted by some of the finest engravers of the day. Tigranes' power waned in the 60's BC, when his interests came into conflict with the expanding power of Rome. After a series of losses, his son defected to the Roman general Pompey, and Tigranes finally surrendered. Having submitted to the Romans, Tigranes was allowed to remain the king of Armenia as a tributary of Rome.