Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 729. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $950. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CILICIA, Tarsus. Antinoüs, favorite of Hadrian. Died 130 AD. Æ 36mm (27.43 gm, 7h). HRWC ANTINOOC, draped bust right, wearing uraeus crown and wreath of ivy / ADPIANHC TAPCOV MHTPOPOL EWN NEOKOPO V, female panther standing left, her paw placed on a cantharus. Blum pg. 52, 2; SNG Levante -; SNG France -; BMC Lycaonia -; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG von Aulock -. Fine, brown and tan patina with earthen encrustation. ($1000)

From the David A. Dowdy Collection. Ex Sternberg 11 (20-21 November 1981), lot 362.

The edge of this coin was rouletted in antiquity, probably to turn it into a talisman after the end of its circulating life. Even more intriguingly, the reverse field has an engraved Chi-Rho monogram above the panther. Now, this could merely indicate the owner of this amulet was a devotée of Antinoüs with the name Chr..., but could it be the handiwork of a fourth century Christian "canceling" the power of a pagan charm?

See lot 715 for a note on the life and coinage of Antinoüs.