Leu Numismatik AG
Web Auction 24 3-6 Dec 2022
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
KINGS OF ARMENIA. Artaxias III, 18-34. Tetrachalkon (Bronze, 22 mm, 12.95 g, 9 h), Artaxata, RY 4 (?) = 21/2. ΘЄOIC CЄBA[CTOIC KAICA]PI KAI IOYΛIA Five-pointed Armenian tiara to left; to lower left, Δ; to right, star. Rev. BAC APTAΞIOY TOY ЄB B ΠΟΛЄ KAI ΠYΘOΔⲰPI Horse standing left. Kovacs 191. Extremely rare. An unusually complete example of this interesting issue with an attractive dark patina. Die break on the obverse, otherwise, very fine.
From the collection of an Armenian businessman, Leu Web Auction 20, 16-18 July 2022, 1436, ex Leu Web Auction 14, 12-13 December 2020, 533 and previously from an important collection of Armenian coins, Leu 4, 25 May 2019, 346 and ex Gorny & Mosch 212, 5 March 2013, 2264 (misdescribed).
Artaxias III was the son of the Pontic King Polemo I (circa 37-8 BC) and his wife, Pythodoris, who are both named on the reverse of this interesting issue. The fact that the obverse refers to Divus Augustus and Livia makes it likely that the coin was struck as a commemorative issue after Artaxias' mother Pythodoris had deceased, which, if the Δ is not a value mark (for tetrachalkon) but a regnal year, would have been in 21/2. If this is true, the issue hails the deceased parents of both Artaxias III and his Roman overlord, Tiberius, and goes along nicely with the King's oktachalkon (Kovacs 189), which portrays Tiberius and Artaxias together on the obverse.
From the collection of an Armenian businessman, Leu Web Auction 20, 16-18 July 2022, 1436, ex Leu Web Auction 14, 12-13 December 2020, 533 and previously from an important collection of Armenian coins, Leu 4, 25 May 2019, 346 and ex Gorny & Mosch 212, 5 March 2013, 2264 (misdescribed).
Artaxias III was the son of the Pontic King Polemo I (circa 37-8 BC) and his wife, Pythodoris, who are both named on the reverse of this interesting issue. The fact that the obverse refers to Divus Augustus and Livia makes it likely that the coin was struck as a commemorative issue after Artaxias' mother Pythodoris had deceased, which, if the Δ is not a value mark (for tetrachalkon) but a regnal year, would have been in 21/2. If this is true, the issue hails the deceased parents of both Artaxias III and his Roman overlord, Tiberius, and goes along nicely with the King's oktachalkon (Kovacs 189), which portrays Tiberius and Artaxias together on the obverse.