Mars in Scorpio

Triton XX, Lot: 479. Estimate $2000. Sold for $6500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Drachm (34mm, 22.81 g, 12h). Zodiac series. Dated RY 8 (AD 144/5). [AV]T K T AIΛ A∆P ANTωNЄINOC [CЄB ЄVC], laureate head right / Mars in Scorpio: Helmeted and cuirassed bust left of Ares (Mars); before, star of eight rays; to either side, L H (date); beneath all, scorpion left. Köln 1500 var. (obv. legend); Dattari (Savio) 2972 (same dies); K&G 35.264 corr. (incorrect obv. legend given, illustrated example is Dattari 2971); Emmett 1460.8. VF, dark green patina with traces of red, deposits on the reverse. Rare. One of the finest known examples for the type.

From the H. Mitchell Collection, purchased from R. M. Smythe (David Vagi), 18 November 1999.

Alexandria saw an immense output of coinage during the eighth year of Antoninus Pius’s reign. The Zodiac drachms, mythological types, and a host of issues for the nomes appeared that year. One explanation for this activity centers on the celebration of the renewal of the Great Sothic cycle, the point when the star Sothis (Sirius) rises on the same point on the horizon as the sun. This cycle of 1461 years began early in the reign of Pius in AD 139, and apparently prompted a renewal in the ancient Egyptian religion, while the coin types also stressed the connections to the Greco-Roman Pantheon.