EGYPT, Alexandria. Antinoüs. Died AD 130. Æ Diobol (23mm, 7.57 g, 12h). Dated RY 19 of Hadrian (AD 134/5). VF.

Triton XXVIII – Session 5
Lot: 5465. Estimated: $ 150

The Beniak Collection of Alexandrian Coinage, Bronze

Sold For $ 1 100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

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EGYPT, Alexandria. Antinoüs. Died AD 130. Æ Diobol (23mm, 7.57 g, 12h). Dated RY 19 of Hadrian (AD 134/5). Draped bust right, wearing hem-hem crown / Antinoüs (as Hermes), wearing chlamys, holding caduceus with his right hand, on horseback right; L I Θ (date) in field. Köln 1277; Dattari (Savio) 2084; K&G 34a.3; RPC III 6082; Emmett 1348.21 (R3). Red-brown patina, porosity, holed twice. VF.

From the Dr. Thomas E. Beniak Collection, purchased from Frank L. Kovacs, 8 January 2014.

This coin has been pierced twice, likely serving as a funerary piece on a Romano-Egyptian mummy. Coins and other amulets were woven into the fabric of the mummies to serve as talismans against the spirits that would try to harm them on their way to the afterlife, the coin would pay the toll to Charon, the Greco-Roman tradition of paying the ferryman, which had been absorbed into Egyptian customs. Mummification was still practiced by the Egyptians through the third century AD until Christianity became the dominant religion of the empire.

Closing Date and Time: 22 January 2025 at 12:34:40 ET.



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