Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 59 11 Jul 2019
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Hadrian AR Cistophoric Tetradrachm of Ephesus, Ionia. After AD 128. HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS P P, bare head right / COS III, cult statue of Artemis Ephesia standing facing, extending hands and flanked by stags and thymiateria. RPC III, 1347; RIC 489; Metcalf 19; RSC 319. 10.82g, 31mm, 6h.
Good Very Fine, flan crack. Overstruck on a cistophorus of Marc Antony and Octavia of Ephesus.
From a private Swiss collection.
As well as the partial obverse legend seen above the cult statue (...IG•ITER•ET•TERT) not obliterated during overstriking, the twisting snakes seen on the reverse of the issues of Marc Antony and Octavia from Ephesus can be discerned in the toning on the obverse of this cistophorus of Hadrian, along with a fragment of the legend - III•VIR• - between HADRI and the back of Hadrian's portrait. However, it is the shadow of the head of Dionysus, and his hand holding the sceptre, that can be seen above the crown of Hadrian's hair that make clear the exact undertype (RPC I 2202; RSC 3; CRI 263; BMCRR East 136).
Good Very Fine, flan crack. Overstruck on a cistophorus of Marc Antony and Octavia of Ephesus.
From a private Swiss collection.
As well as the partial obverse legend seen above the cult statue (...IG•ITER•ET•TERT) not obliterated during overstriking, the twisting snakes seen on the reverse of the issues of Marc Antony and Octavia from Ephesus can be discerned in the toning on the obverse of this cistophorus of Hadrian, along with a fragment of the legend - III•VIR• - between HADRI and the back of Hadrian's portrait. However, it is the shadow of the head of Dionysus, and his hand holding the sceptre, that can be seen above the crown of Hadrian's hair that make clear the exact undertype (RPC I 2202; RSC 3; CRI 263; BMCRR East 136).