ORC8728 Mithradates VI portrait tetr. VF
$165.00
Feb-13-01    
Seller oldromancoins.com 

     Mithradates the Great, AR tetradrachm, (15.56g) Odessa Mint, c.
     83 BC, Head of Mithradates right, wearing lion skin, knotted at
     base of neck. / BASILEWS ALEZANDPOU Zeus seated left, holding
     eagle on extended arm, MAKW below eagle, ODH in exergue. Price
     1193. VF.

     Price notes in the Coinage in the Name of Alexander the Great and
     Philip Arrhidaeus, "A good chronological pointer is provided by
     1191-1193, which transform the head of Herakles into a portrait
     of Mithradates VI of Pontus. A similar phenomenon occurs at
     Smyrna, and this together with the general style of portrait
     assures a date no earlier than the mid 80s BC for the issues at
     Odessus. The coinage thus provides an interesting parallel to the
     appearance of Mithradates' name on the New Style coinage of
     Athens. Tomi, Callatis, Tyra, and Istrus struck gold staters in
     the name of Lysimachus at this period, and Mesembria and Odessus
     tetradrachms in the name of Alexander. Their circulation was
     apparently local, and their striking was presumably a result of
     the first expedition of Mithradates rather than having been
     created in preparations to finance it. By 70 BC all issues at
     Odessus must have ceased." pp. 191-192.