Watch List notes:

PHRYGIA. Apameia. 50-49 BC. Cistophoric Tetradrachm (Silver, 27 mm, 12.29 g, 12 h), struck under the magistrate Mantitheos son of Mantitheos. Cista mystica with half-open lid from which a serpent issues to the left; around, ivy wreath with fruits. Rev. Two snakes coiled around a bow case; to left, AΠΑ; to right, diaulos (double flute); between snakes heads, ΜΑΝΤΙΘΕΟΣ; below, ΜΑΝΤΙΘΕΟΥ. Kleiner, Late pl. 14, A (same obv. die), and LRC p. 49, otherwise unpublished. The second known specimen and better centered and slightly better detailed than the only other known example. A great opportunity to acquire an extreme rarity. Very fine.



Kleiner discusses this unique type in his article on the late cistophoroi, discussing an example in Berlin, and says that it shares its obverse die with issues of the governor of Asia in 49-48 BC, C. Fannius. He says "[the] coin more likely documents an issue of 50/49 BC, a year for which no Apameia proconsular cistophori are recorded. The Berlin piece was probably struck sometime after 31 July 50 BC (when Cicero's term as governor of Cilicia, of which Apameia was then a part, came to an end), under Cicero's successor, the quaestor C. Coelius Caldus. The next year the conventus of Apameia was retransferred to Asia, and the Apameia cistophori of that year bear Fannius' name" (Kleiner, Late p. 130).