MACEDON. Thessalonica. Augustus, with Divus Julius Caesar, 27 BC-AD 14. Assarion (Bronze, 19 mm, 8.08 g, 6 h). ΘΕ - CEBACTOC Bare head of Augustus to right. Rev. ΘEOC Bare head of Divus Julius Caesar to right. BMC 1. Hunter 37. RPC I 5421 ('uncertain mint'). SNG Evelpidis 1327. Rare. Dark green patina. Somewhat smoothed, otherwise, very fine.
Ex Savoca E-Auction 6, 27 December 2015, 325.
The original attribution of this type to Thessalonica by B. V. Head (in BMC Macedonia) was challenged by I. Touratsoglou (Die Münzstätte von Thessaloniki in der römischen Kaiserzeit, p. 43, nr. 69) on stylistic grounds. For this reason, the authors of RPC I attributed these coins to an 'uncertain mint', speculating on stylistic connections with a group of coins from the mint of Apamea in Phrygia, and reading the 'ΘΕ' as possibly standing for 'theos', i.e. Divus Augustus, therefore dating the coin to circa 14 AD. In 2007, however, a coin emerged in CNG 75, 798, that provided a die link to another issue bearing the ethnic of Thessalonica, thus vindicating Head's attribution, and confirming that the ΘΕ is indeed the abbreviation of the ethnic of Thessalonica. The most likely date of production of the issue is early in Augustus' reign.