Ex Count Ouvaroff Collection (1887)

Triton XIX, Lot: 2044. Estimate $10000. Sold for $12000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of BOSPOROS. Pharnakes II. Circa 63-46 BC. AV Stater (21mm, 8.13 g, 1h). Pantikapaion mint. Dated BE 245 (53/2 BC). Diademed head right / BAΣIΛEΩΣ BAΣIΛEΩN MEΓAΛOY [Φ]APNAKOY, Apollo seated left, holding laurel branch in extended right hand, left arm resting on kithara to right; tripod to left; to right, EMΣ (date) above monogram. Frolova & Ireland § 5, dies B/e, 4 = G&K 5 = A.L. Bertier de la Garde, Materials for Weight Research on the Monetary Systems of Sarmatia and Tauric Chersonese (Moskow, 1913), p. 104, 9/5 = A.V. Oreshnikov, Catalogue of the Count A.S. Ouvaroff Collection of Antiquities VII (Moskow, 1887), 437 (this coin, illustrated in all); Anokhin 1304 (this coin illustrated); MacDonald 184/2 (this coin illustrated); HGC 7, 198; DCA 446. Good VF, some die wear, slight die shift and a couple light scratches in field on obverse. Extremely rare, one of only five examples with this date, and the only one not in a public collection (Berlin, Paris [2], and Vienna).

From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams. Ex Leu 36 (7 May 1985), 140; Count A.S. Ouvaroff Collection (1887), 437.