Heritage World Coin Auctions
ANA Signature Sale 3066 17 Aug 2018
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Ancients
PONTIC KINGDOM. Mithradates VI Eupator, the Great (120-63 BC). AV stater (22mm, 8.28 gm, 12h). NGC MS 4/5 - 4/5, edge bump. Dated Pontic Year 209 (89/8 BC). Diademed head of Mithradates VI right, with wind-blown hair / BAΣIΛEΩΣ / MIΘPAΔATOY / EYΠATOPOΣ, stag grazing left; star and crescent to left, ΘΣ (date) over AX monogram to right; all within ivy wreath. De Callataÿ pg. 4 (D5/R8). SNG BM Black Sea 1028. Cf. SNG Copenhagen 233 (date). Rare. Perfectly centered and deeply struck, with a magnificent and well-modeled portrait of this charismatic character.
Mithradates VI "the Great" was the last Hellenistic ruler to challenge the might of Rome. His long and eventful career spanned a nearly 60-year- reign in which he was a constant thorn in the side of the Romans as they sought to consolidate their conquests. His gold coinage falls into two groups: A mass mintage of gold staters imitating the types of Lysimachus of Thrace from more than two centuries earlier, and a much smaller and more carefully produced issue of dated gold staters with his name and portrait. The imagery deliberately evokes the memory of Alexander the Great, depicting himself as a semi-divine conqueror with flowing, windswept hair. These rare and desirable coins represent the last great example of Hellenistic portraiture in gold, and as such are highly prized.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 8000-12000 USD
PONTIC KINGDOM. Mithradates VI Eupator, the Great (120-63 BC). AV stater (22mm, 8.28 gm, 12h). NGC MS 4/5 - 4/5, edge bump. Dated Pontic Year 209 (89/8 BC). Diademed head of Mithradates VI right, with wind-blown hair / BAΣIΛEΩΣ / MIΘPAΔATOY / EYΠATOPOΣ, stag grazing left; star and crescent to left, ΘΣ (date) over AX monogram to right; all within ivy wreath. De Callataÿ pg. 4 (D5/R8). SNG BM Black Sea 1028. Cf. SNG Copenhagen 233 (date). Rare. Perfectly centered and deeply struck, with a magnificent and well-modeled portrait of this charismatic character.
Mithradates VI "the Great" was the last Hellenistic ruler to challenge the might of Rome. His long and eventful career spanned a nearly 60-year- reign in which he was a constant thorn in the side of the Romans as they sought to consolidate their conquests. His gold coinage falls into two groups: A mass mintage of gold staters imitating the types of Lysimachus of Thrace from more than two centuries earlier, and a much smaller and more carefully produced issue of dated gold staters with his name and portrait. The imagery deliberately evokes the memory of Alexander the Great, depicting himself as a semi-divine conqueror with flowing, windswept hair. These rare and desirable coins represent the last great example of Hellenistic portraiture in gold, and as such are highly prized.
HID02901242017
Estimate: 8000-12000 USD