CNG 100, Lot: 245. Estimate $3000. Sold for $8000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of BOSPORUS. Sauromates I, with Domitian or Nerva. AD 93/4-123/4. AV Stater (21mm, 7.78 g, 6h). Dated Bosporan Era 393 (AD 96/7). TI IOYΛIOC BACIΛЄYC CAYPOMATOY, diademed and draped bust of Sauromates right / Laureate head of Domitian (or Nerva with features of Domitian) right; ΓЧΤ (date) below. Frolova p. 103, 1 and pl. IV, 21 = Burachkov pl. XXVIII, 134 = Anokhin 388 = Zograph pl. XLVII, 7 = BMC 1 (same dies); MacDonald 369 (this coin cited and illustrated). EF, light scratch on the reverse. Extremely rare.

From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams. Ex M&M Numismatics I (7 December 1997), for a hammer of $3350; Numismatica Ars Classica 1 (29 March 1989), lot 180.

The portrait on the reverse is cause for confusion, as the Bosporan mint lacked a portrait of Nerva shortly following that emperor’s succession of Domitian in AD 96. As the Bosporan date on this coin places it in the 96/7 timeframe, it could be interpreted either as a portrait of Domitian during the last months of his reign, or a portrait of Nerva (with the features of Domitian) during the early months of his reign. Earlier scholarship listed the type simply as that of Nerva, but the similarity to the portrait of Domitian is overwhelming, and an open-ended attribution seems more appropriate.