New Attribution to Dium

Triton XVIII, Lot: 901. Estimate $5000. Sold for $3000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SYRIA, Decapolis. Dium. Septimius Severus. AD 193-211. Æ (33mm, 28.86 g, 12h). Struck CY 268 (AD 205/6). AV · K · Λ · CЄΠ CЄOVHPOC ·, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / [Є]TOYC HΞC (date) above, ΔЄ[IH]–NωN below, bearded river-god reclining left on overturned amphora from which water flows, holding reed in right hand, cornucopia in left; tree in left field. Spijkerman –; Rosenberger –; cf. Sofaer 8 (Adraa). VF, earthen brown patina. Extremely rare.

The left hand portion of the ethnic is very faint but the first two letters, which appear to be ΔЄ, are fairly legible. Very little of the legend on the Sofaer coin is preserved and it was presumably given to Adraa due to the river-god type the mint often used. That coin seems to have the ethnic above (only the end portion ...NωN is visible) and, presumably, a date below. The style, however, does not match the coinage of Adraa and the river-god on the known types is always accompanied by a figure of Tyche. Additionally, a date of 268, comporting with the Pompeian era, would be incompatible with the city (Adraa’s coinage is dated according to Trajan’s establishment of the Provincia Arabia in AD 106). At Dium, coins of Domna with her earlier hairstyle, a young Caracalla as Augustus, and Geta as Caesar are all known, each with portraits with bulbous heads, pointy noses, and recessed chins as on our coin. Year 268 was apparently the first year the city struck coins, based on the dates known for all other members of the imperial family.