Triton XXII, Lot: 619. Estimate $300. Sold for $350. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SELEUCIS and PIERIA, Antioch. Philip I. AD 244-249. BI Tetradrachm (25mm, 10.92 g, 6h). Rome mint for circulation in Syria. Struck circa AD 246. AVTOK K M IOVΛ ΦIΛIΠΠOV CЄB, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / ΔHMAPX ЄΞOVCIAC, eagle standing facing, head left, with wings spread, holding wreath in beak; B to upper right, S-C flanking body, MON VRB in exergue. Prieur 306; McAlee 901b (this coin, illustrated). EF, toned, hint of porosity.

From the Michel Prieur Collection.

The exergual legend can be expanded to MONeta VRBis. Rome was colloquially know as Urbs (“the city”), and Moneta Urbis can be understood as meaning “Roman money” or “Roman mint.” H.R. Baldus was the first to put forth the now widely accepted view that these coins were struck at Rome or, at the very least, the dies were prepared there. McAlee (p. 325) notes: “The use of the genitive case for Philip’s name (meaning ‘of Philip’) may indicate that this was a special issue under Philip’s personal authority, although this seems at odds with the presence of the letters ‘SC’ on the coins, indicating approval by a broader authority (theoretically, at least, the Senate).”