Rare and Unusual Depiction

CNG 105, Lot: 586. Estimate $500. Sold for $300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of ARMENIA. Artaxias III, with Tiberius. AD 18-34. Æ 8 Chalkoi (23mm, 10.96 g, 12h). Jugate laureate heads of Tiberius and Artaxias III (Lucius Antonius Zeno) right / Armenian tiara. Kovacs 189; 2015 RPC Consolidated Supplement S2-I-5488.4 = J. Nurpetlian, “Intriguing Coin Type Depicting an Armenian Tiara,” NumCirc CXX.3 (September 2013), Fig. 1 (this coin). Fair, dark green and brick-red patina. Extremely rare, only four examples cited in the 2015 RPC Consolidated Supplement, none in CoinArchives; the first to be offered at recent auction.

Kovacs and RPC differ on the identification of the portraits. RPC describes them as the Divus Augustus and Livia. However, on better preserved specimens the portraits appear to be male. Furthermore, depictions of Divus Augustus normally feature a radiate crown. Kovacs, on the other hand, identifies the portraits as Tiberius and Artaxias III, based on the nearly complete reverse legend on his coin, which reads KAI TIBEPI OΣ K Z[HNO]Σ.

While it was not uncommon for Roman client-kings to include a portrait of the reigning emperor on their coinage, this particular depiction, with the conjoined busts of Tiberius and Zeno is unusual and rare, since the cataloger has been unable to find another example of this arrangement.