Triton XXI, Lot: 257. Estimate $3000. Sold for $2500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Diocletian. AD 284-305. Potin Octadrachm(?) (22mm, 7.40 g, 12h). Without a date, but struck circa May/June–September/October AD 298. ∆IOKΛHTI ANOC CЄB, radiate head right / C ЄPAΠIC CωTHP (‘Serapis [the] Savior’), draped bust of Sarapis right, wearing ornate kalathos. Köln –; Dattari (Savio) –; K&G 119.140; Emmett –; Staffieri, “Testimonianze sulla fine della monetazione autonoma alessandrina (296-298 d.C),” Proceedings of the XIII International Numismatic Congress (Madrid, 2005), pp. 937-45, Fig. 3 (this coin); Staffieri, Alexandria In Nummis 269 (this coin). Near EF, dark brown patina with earthen highlights/deposits. Extremely rare, perhaps unique.

From the Giovanni Maria Staffieri Collection. Ex Numismatik Lanz 109 (27 May 2002), lot 824.

Perhaps another ‘pattern’ coin issued during the transitional period between the strictly Alexandrian-style coinage and the introduction of the new Roman-style coinage (e.g. folles, etc.). Kampmann & Ganschow, in their reference cited above (Die Münzen der römischen Münzstätte Alexandria), state that: “The following two types have not been influenced by portraiture in Alexandria; however, since under Diocletian and Maximianus only coins with Greek legends were issued in Egypt, they were probably intended for circulation in Egypt.” The second type they refer to is lot 259.