333, Lot: 197. Estimate $200. Sold for $850. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SYRIA, Coele-Syria. Damascus. Pseudo-autonomous issue. temp. Tiberius, AD 14-37. Æ (21mm, 8.30 g, 12h). Dated CY 345 (AD 33/4). Head of Perseus(?) right, wearing Phrygian headdress / Ram standing left. De Saulcy 5; Rosenberger -; RPC I 4800 (citing 4). VF, dark green and brown surfaces. Extremely rare and perhaps the only specimen without a countermark obscuring the obverse design.

An intriguing coin that RPC has misattributed to Livia(?). The present specimen, however, excludes the possibility that the portrait is that of Livia. It perhaps represents the hero Perseus, although we can find no evidence of a cult to Perseus at Damascus.