Watch List notes:

GREEK COINS
Kingdom of Pontus, Mithradates VI Eupator, 120 – 63

Tetradrachm uncertain mint circa 74, AR 16.62 g. Diademed head of Mithradates VI r. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ / ΜΙΘΡΑΔΑΤΟΥ / ΕΥΠΑΤΟΡΟΣ Stag grazing l.; in inner l. field, star on crescent / ΓΚΣ (year 223 of the Pontic era); in inner r. field, monograms and in exergue, IB (month 12). All within ivy-wreath with berries. BMC Pontus - cf. 44, 6 (different month). SNG Copenhagen –, cf. 236 (different date). F. de Callataÿ, D55/R4, pl. XI (this coin). J. Spier, "Two Hellenistic Gems Rediscovered", Antike Kunst 34/2, 1991, pl. 10, 5 (obverse only). Boston –, cf. 1360 (date and monogram inverted). Kraay-Hirmer pl. 211, 775 var. BMC Black Sea 1. Bendenoun, Coins of Ancient World, A Portrait of the JDL Collection, 22 (this coin).
Undoubtedly the finest specimen known. A spectacular portrait struck on an exceptionally
large flan. Lovely old cabinet tone and virtually as struck and almost Fdc


Ex Numismatic Auction Ltd. II, 1983, 122, and NAC-Tradart sale 74, 2013, JDL collection, 289. From the collection of Sheikh Saoud Al-Thani.
Few leaders in history were as polarizing as Mithradates VI. He is admired for his intense determination and his seemingly boundless talents, and yet he is detested for his many acts of cruelty, some of which cannot be excused even if one takes into account the violent age in which he lived.
There can be no question that he was a military genius. He was one of Rome's most formidable enemies, with Cicero rating him higher than the Carthaginian general Hannibal, and second only to Alexander III among the Greek kings. It took three of Rome's best generals – Sulla, Lucullus and Pompey the Great – to defeat Mithradates convincingly enough for him to commit suicide.
Mithradates came to power by arranging the murder of his mother, who was an unwanted regent, and he is credited with murdering other close family members and executing concubines rather than allowing them to fall into enemy hands. He was so bitterly opposed to the Roman presence in Asia Minor that in a single night he ordered the murder of more than 80,000 Romans and Latins in residence there. Most of these victims, no doubt, were innocent of any crime against Mithradates, and could hardly have deserved the death sentence they received.
He is said to have been of boundless courage, to have been highly proficient in weaponry, and to have trained his body to resist the effects of poison by regularly subjecting himself to non-lethal doses. He may have been able to communicate in as many as 22 languages and was a devoted patron of art and poetry. He also was of noble lineage: he claimed descent on his mother's side from the Greek Kings Alexander III and Seleucus I, and on his father's side from the Persian Kings Cyrus and Darius. Hence his honourary title Eupator, meaning 'of a noble father.'
His coin portraits are of two types: restrained and realistic, and flamboyant and idealized. The masterful example offered here recalls the familiar image of Alexander III. The idealized type was admired by Edward T. Newell, who described them as "rather theatrical...with flowing diadem ends and dramatically flying locks of hair."
The reverses of his portrait coins bear an ivy wreath that alludes to his epithet of Dionysus, and show a stag or Pegasus, with the latter alluding to his claim of descent from Perseus. Also within the wreath are a crescent and star, the badge of the Pontic dynasty, his royal inscription, control monograms and the date of issue, exact to the month. This particular coin is dated to September, 74 B.C.