427, Lot: 394. Estimate $500. Sold for $550. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Vespasian. AD 69-79. Æ Hemidrachm (27mm, 10.01 g, 12h). Dated RY 9 (AD 76/77). ΑΥΤΟΚ ΚΑΙΣ ΣΕΒΑΣ ΟΥΕΣΠΑΣΙΑΝΟΥ, laureate head right / ΖΕΥΣ ΣΑΡΑΠΙΣ L ENAT (date), Zeus-Serapis enthroned left, extending his right hand over Kerberos, who is seated left at his feet, and holding scepter with his left hand; on throne back, Nike standing left, holding wreath. Köln 314; Dattari (Savio) 406; K&G 20.66 (this coin illustrated); RPC II 2457; Emmett 214.9; Staffieri, Alexandria In Nummis 28 (this coin). EF, dark green to black patina, some roughness and light smoothing. Very rare. Only one other specimen in CoinArchives.

Ex Giovanni Maria Staffieri Collection (Triton XXI, 9 January 2018), lot 34; Heidelberger Münzhandlung Herbert Grün 20, Part I (22 May 1997), lot 205.

This coin employs an unusual obverse legend variant with ΣΕΒΑΣ instead of the usual ΣΕΒΑ. The reverse type corresponds to the canon statuary present at the Serapeum of Alexandria.