Leu Numismatik AG
Auction 7 24-25 Oct 2020
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BITHYNIA. Prusias ad Hypium. Geta, as Caesar, 198-209. Tetrassarion (Bronze, 27 mm, 10.53 g, 7 h). Π CЄΠTIMI ΓЄTAC KAICAP Bare-headed, draped and cuirassed bust of Geta to left, seen from behind; before to left, countermark: laureate imperial head to right within circular incuse. Rev. [ΠPO]YCIЄΩN ΠPOC YΠIΩ Herakles standing front, head to right and wearing lion's skin draped around his neck and hanging down his shoulders, drawing arrow back in bow and pointing it slightly upward; before, a Stymphalian bird falling from the sky. BMC -. RG -. SNG Copenhagen -. SNG Glasgow -. SNG Leypold -. SNG Righetti -. SNG von Aulock -. Winterthur -. For countermark, Howgego 67 corr. (dating). Apparently unpublished and unique. Minor edge crack from countermarking, otherwise, very fine.
The rather unimportant mint of Prusias ad Hypium had a fondness for the Twelve Labors of Herakles: it struck at least some of them as reverse types under Macrinus and Maximinus I (see the note in Leu 5 (2019), 256), whereas this hitherto unpublished coin presents Herakles' Sixth Labor, the slaying of the Stymphalian birds, on a coin of Geta Caesar. Perhaps this issue, too, was actually broader and included other Labors of Herakles, which are yet to turn up? In any case, it is worth noting that Howgego's tentative dating of his countermark 67 to Caracalla's visit to Nicomedia in April 215 cannot be correct, as it also appears on SNG von Aulock 7166, a coin of Maximinus I.
The rather unimportant mint of Prusias ad Hypium had a fondness for the Twelve Labors of Herakles: it struck at least some of them as reverse types under Macrinus and Maximinus I (see the note in Leu 5 (2019), 256), whereas this hitherto unpublished coin presents Herakles' Sixth Labor, the slaying of the Stymphalian birds, on a coin of Geta Caesar. Perhaps this issue, too, was actually broader and included other Labors of Herakles, which are yet to turn up? In any case, it is worth noting that Howgego's tentative dating of his countermark 67 to Caracalla's visit to Nicomedia in April 215 cannot be correct, as it also appears on SNG von Aulock 7166, a coin of Maximinus I.