Nomos AG
Auction 18 5 May 2019
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
PONTOS. Amisos. Period of the tyrant Straton, circa 36-31/30 BC. (Bronze, 22 mm, 7.98 g, 11 h), struck under an uncertain Quaestor (=Q) allied to Mark Antony. Bare male head, with very individualistic features, to left; below neck, Q. Rev. AMI-ΣΟY Bare male head, balding and with individualistic features, to right, dividing the legend. This coin has been published on Wildwinds: http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/pontos/amisos/Ildem_WA0013.jpg, it is otherwise unknown and is neither in the RPC or its supplements. An unusually interesting and exciting coin with two very well-made late Republican - Hellenistic portraits. Dark brown/green patina. Very fine.
This coin is remarkably enigmatic: the only things we can be sure about are the identification of the obverse portrait with a quaestor (though we do not know which one), and that the mint, which struck this coin, was Amisos. That fact allows us to place this coin during the period between Antony's appointment of a certain Straton as tyrant of Amisos, and his removal by Octavian in c. 31. The craggily Roman Republican-looking portrait on the obverse, which is immediately reminiscent of that on the well-known issue from an uncertain mint in southern Asia Minor (RPC 5409-5411), now dated to sometime early in the reign of Augustus, must be of the quaestor in charge of the general area; while the head on the reverse is a much more comfortable-looking individual. Combined with the city name in the usual genitive, it would be reasonable to associate the man portrayed with the city itself; thus, at this point in time, the only suitable person would be Straton.
This coin is remarkably enigmatic: the only things we can be sure about are the identification of the obverse portrait with a quaestor (though we do not know which one), and that the mint, which struck this coin, was Amisos. That fact allows us to place this coin during the period between Antony's appointment of a certain Straton as tyrant of Amisos, and his removal by Octavian in c. 31. The craggily Roman Republican-looking portrait on the obverse, which is immediately reminiscent of that on the well-known issue from an uncertain mint in southern Asia Minor (RPC 5409-5411), now dated to sometime early in the reign of Augustus, must be of the quaestor in charge of the general area; while the head on the reverse is a much more comfortable-looking individual. Combined with the city name in the usual genitive, it would be reasonable to associate the man portrayed with the city itself; thus, at this point in time, the only suitable person would be Straton.