271, Lot: 349. Estimate $100. Sold for $90. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SYRIA, Seleucis and Pieria. Antioch(?). 2nd century AD. Æ Tessera (17mm, 3.25 g, 12h). Laureate head of Asclepius right / Serpent-entwined staff. Butcher 12i; McAlee p. 85, fig. 14; SNG France 1856-8 (Pergamum). VF, dark green patina with earthen highlights. From an interesting series deserving of serious study.

While the types would fit nicely into the coinage of Pergamum, finds suggest an attribution to northern Syria. Perhaps they served as a kind of temple token for a complex of Asclepius (that in Antioch on Mt. Silpius?)