Wonderful Portrait of Alexandrian Style

Triton XVIII, Lot: 902. Estimate $5000. Sold for $17000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHOENICIA, Tyre. Trajan. AD 98-117. AR Tetradrachm (27mm, 15.06 g, 6h). Dated RY 12 (AD 108/9). AVT KAI NЄPOVA TRAIANOC, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Trajan right / CЄB TЄP (sic) ΔKI (sic) ΔHM ЄΞ VΠ Є, laureate bust of Melqart-Hercules right, with lion’s skin tied around neck; L IB (date) below. Prieur 1524 var. (rev. legend); McAlee 456 var. (same). EF, toned, small scuff below Melqart’s chin. Rare and of exceptional style.

There is good evidence that Rome and Alexandria were involved in the production of the Tyrian silver coinage under Trajan. This and a related issue (Prieur 1523; McAlee 457) are not only Alexandrian in style but use a form of dating that is characteristically Egyptian. Discussing these coins, McAlee (p. 191) notes: “Given the die link between a Group 1 tetradrachm and a bronze coin of Alexandria at the beginning of Trajan’s reign, it seems likely that Alexandria also produced dies or struck coins for Tyre in this instance. The reason on this occasion was probably that the tetradrachm mint at Tyre lacked the skilled engravers necessary to produce the dies, since it had been dependent on Rome for producing dies (and perhaps for striking as well) for its preceding issues.”