ROME - AUGUSTUS - RARE EASTERN MINT AS
$46.00
11/28/99

A rare as of Augustus from an uncertain Eastern mint, 21 mm in
     diameter. RIC (Rev. Ed.) notes, in a footnote at p. 82: "Attribution
     of these coins, bearing the numerals(?) Lambda T , is uncertain.
     Although the portraiture differs from that of the other coins with
     CA, they are here provisionally assigned to Pergamum. Grant (FITA p.
     344) gave them to Phoenicia." RPC attributes it to an uncertain mint
     in Syria or Phoenicia. RPC, p. 603. Grant interpreted the letters
     Lambda T as a date (330) of the era of Alexander the Great
     (commencing in 336 B.C.), and concluded that the coins were struck in
     Sidon in 6 B.C. to celebrate its liberty (From Imperium to
     Auctoritas, pp. 344-45), but this interpretation is controversial.