| Leu Numismatik AG > Web Auction 29 | Auction date: 24 February 2024 |
| Lot number: 963 Price realized: 1,100 CHF (Approx. 1,249 USD / 1,154 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: KINGS OF ARMENIA MINOR. Mithradates, circa 180s-170s BC. Hemiobol (Silver, 8 mm, 0.52 g, 12 h). Draped bust of Mithradates to left, bearded and wearing upright bashlyk tied with a diadem. Rev. Bee; around, traces of a Greek legend (?). Kovacs -. Leu Web Auction 27 (2023), 766. Of the highest rarity, the second known example. Of tremendous importance, the earliest known Armenian silver coin. Light deposits and with some flan faults, otherwise, good fine. Ex Leu Web Auction 28, 10 December 2023, 1592 and previously from a European collection, formed before 2005. The exceptional and unexpected discovery of these hemiobols antedates the first introduction of silver in the Armenian coinage by almost a century, namely from Tigranes II 'the Great' to Mithradates, King of Armenia Minor. Such a radical innovation fits in well with this king, whose coinage shows a bewildering number of types and varieties, most of which have only recently come to light. The experiment was soon abandoned, however, perhaps due to the lack of demand in the still only superficially monetarized Armenian society, and it was only in the 1st century BC that Tigranes II 'the Great' reintroduced a bimetallic currency system - first, on a very small scale, in circa 96-80 BC, and then on a much larger, imperial manner after his conquest of vast and much more monetarized regions in southern Asia Minor and Syria in the 80s-60s BC. Starting price: 50 CHF |  |
