Distinctive 'Rhesaena' Mint Dies
Prieur Plate Coin

447, Lot: 399. Estimate $200. Sold for $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MESOPOTAMIA, Rhesaena. Caracalla. AD 198-217. AR Tetradrachm (26.5mm, 13.59 g, 12h). Struck circa AD 215-217. Radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Eagle standing facing, head and tail right, with wings spread, holding wreath in beak; shrine with pediment between legs. Prieur 878 (this coin). Lightly toned with underlying luster, . Near EF. Extremely rare, only two noted by Prieur, and two in CoinArchives.

From the Michel Prieur Collection. Ex Giessener Münzhandlung 46 (30 October 1989), lot 388 (catalogued as Edessa).

Prieur states in his book: “The attribution of this coin and of some of the following depends on the identification of both obverses and reverses die-cutters who are unmistakably from the ‘Rhesaena’ mint.”