Gemini III, January 9th, 2007



                  Lot # 223 - Auction is closed.Estimate: US$6000 / Price 
                  Realized: US$6250 
                  CAPPADOCIAN KINGDOM. Ariarathes V Eusebes. Silver tetradrachm 



             



            CAPPADOCIAN KINGDOM. Ariarathes V Eusebes. (Ca. 163–130 BC). Silver 
            tetradrachm (16.80 gm). , Dated regnal year 30 (133 BC). Dated 
            regnal year 30 (133 BC). Diademed head of Ariarathes V right / 
            ÂÁÓÉËÅÙÓ ÁÑÉÁÑÁÈÏÕ, Athena standing left, in extended right hand 
            holding Nike who crowns royal name, left hand resting on grounded 
            shield, spear resting against left elbow, AY monogram in outer left 
            field, ÐÁÖÉ monogram in inner left field, ÐÁÑÕ monogram in outer 
            right field, date Ë in exergue. SNG von Aulock 6263 (same obverse 
            die). Simonetta (Ariarathes IV) p. 12, 2, pl. 1, 12 (same obverse 
            die). Among the finest known. Choice extremely fine. 

            The king who issued this tetradrachm was the first Cappadocian ruler 
            to strike drachms and the first to institute the regular production 
            of silver coinage. He was identified as Ariarathes IV (ca. 220–163 
            BC) by Theodor Reinach, and this traditional attribution was 
            vigorously defended in the 1960s and 1970s by Bono Simonetta, 
            against Otto Morkholm’s proposed reattribution to Ariarathes V. The 
            arguments were complex and involved the coinage of many reigns; we 
            consider Morkholm’s regnal attributions overall the more plausible, 
            in part because the coinage allotted by Simonetta to Ariarathes V 
            seems unworthy of a king famed for his cultural pretensions. The 
            inauguration of a handsome regular coinage is consistent with the 
            philhellenism of Ariarathes V, who did the following: refounded the 
            cities of Mazaca and Tyana as Greek poleis; presided over the 
            Panathenaic games at Athens; patronized the performing artists’ 
            guild at Athens and established a cult to himself and his queen 
            there; and apparently sponsored Hellenic-style games in Cappadocia. 
            No major historical events can explain the concentration of 
            Ariarathes’ coinage in the last five years of his reign, or his 
            production of tetradrachms in his 29th and 30th regnal years, but it 
            is conceivable that his coinage was connected with festivals, 
            construction of public buildings, and other cultural endeavors. 




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  ... Lot 223 sold for high bid of $6250 [ $7187.5, or approx 5555.9375 EUR, 3665.625 GBP including the 15% buyers fee.] 


Re-used by permission of Harlan J Berk (www.harlanjberk.com) and
                         Freeman & Sear (www.freemanandsear.com)