Extremely Rare Provincial Pertinax

Triton XXI, Lot: 780. Estimate $2000. Sold for $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Pertinax. AD 193. Æ (23mm, 7.37 g, 1h). Prusa ad Olympum (Bithynia) mint. AYT K ЄΛBIOC PЄP[T]IN[A]Ξ CЄB, laureate head right / River-god Peieros reclining left, left arm leaning on rock from which water flows, holding stalk in right hand; ΠΡOVCAE/ΩN in exergue. Cf. RG 64 (same type but larger denomination), otherwise unpublished in the standard references. Good VF, brown surfaces. Extremely rare.

RG identifies the reclining figure as the Genius of Mount Olympus, but other types (cf. RG 46-7) with the same reverse design explicitly name the deity as Peieros (ΠEIEPOC).