Extremely Rare Date

CNG 105, Lot: 133. Estimate $3000. Sold for $4750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of PONTOS. Mithradates VI Eupator. Circa 120-63 BC. AR Tetradrachm (31mm, 16.81 g, 11h). Pergamon mint. Dated month 10, year 219 BE (July 78 BC). Diademed head right / BAΣIΛEΩΣ MIΘPAΔATOY EYΠATOPOΣ, stag grazing left; to left, star-in-crescent above monogram, ΘIΣ (year) above monogram; I (month) below; all within Dionysiac wreath of ivy and fruit. Callataÿ dies D19/R– (unlisted rev. die); RG 16; HGC 7, 338; DCA 692. EF. Extremely rare date, only the third example known.

For this date, Callataÿ (p. 44, n. 84) notes only the two tetradrachms cited by RG (in the Bunbury and Mihailovich collections), and none were in his recent supplement. As both of the two known pieces were unillustrated, Callataÿ did not include them in his die study, and simply cited them in his text. The present piece is clearly from Callataÿ’s obverse die 19, which was previously known on tetradrachms of month 11.