Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 732. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CILICIA, Tarsus. Antinoüs, favorite of Hadrian. Died 130 AD. Æ 35mm (30.80 gm). ANTINOOC HRWC, bust left, drapery on far shoulder, wearing small uraeus crown / ADRIANHC TAR[COU MHTROPOLEWC NEOKOROU] KUDNOC, Antinoüs, as river god Kydnus, reclining left, holding reed; pharos at his feet. Blum pg. 53, 10; SNG Levante 1004 var.; SNG France 1416; cf. BMC Lycaonia pg. 189, 156; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG von Aulock -; Waddington 4630. Near VF, dark green patina with red highlights, tooling over both sides. ($1500)

Ex Ars Antiqua I (3 November 2000), lot 258; Triton I (2-3 December 1997), lot 696.

The poor state of preservation of all known coins of this type makes an absolutely certain description difficult. It is hard to tell if the various descriptions of the bust­bare-headed, with uraeus crown, draped, drapery on far shoulder­are the same type in different states of preservation. The reverse type is noted with and without the structure at the feet of the figure. When mentioned, it is called simply a tower, or perhaps a city gate. On the better preserved examples it closely resembles representations of the Pharos, or lighthouse of Alexandria. The building appears on no other Tarsos coin with the river god, and thus is more likely a link to the Egyptian origins of the Antinoüs cult; by extension, the river god is probably Antinoüs in another guise as a semi-divine being.