313, Lot: 169. Estimate $100. Sold for $60. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHRYGIA, Laodicea ad Lycum. temp. Tiberius(?). AD 14-37. Æ (16mm, 4.70 g, 1h). Pythes, son of Pythes, magistrate. Bare head of Pythes right / Diademed head of Demos right. RPC I 2902; SNG Copenhagen 509. Fine, brown-green patina. Very rare.

While the portraits of a number of Roman officials and local magistrates appeared on coins during the late Republic and into the reign of Augustus, they very rarely appeared thereafter. This coin bears a portrait of Pythes, son of Pythes, a prominent citizen of Laodicea in Phrygia; his portrait is very Julio-Claudian in style, but also shows individuality in its features.