CNG 94, Lot: 410. Estimate $750. Sold for $850. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of BITHYNIA. Nikomedes II Epiphanes. 149-127 BC. AR Tetradrachm (37mm, 16.57 g, 12h). Undated issue. Diademed head right / Zeus Stephanophoros standing left; to inner left, eagle standing left on thunderbolt above monogram. RG 40; SNG von Aulock –; SNG Ashmolean 480; HGC 6, 642. Near EF, lightly toned, a few minor cleaning marks. Fine style.

From the Alex Shubs Collection.

While most of the dated issues in the name of Nikomedes were subjected to a die study in Callataÿ, the earliest issues have been fairly neglected in modern times. Earlier studies have placed the undated coinages under “Nikomedes II–IV,” but it is clear from Callataÿ and O. Mørkholm (EHC) that the dating was a canonical element of the later Bithynian coinage started during the reign of Nikomedes II. Thus, the undated issues should belong to the reign of Nikomedes II.