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| Gemini, LLC > Auction VI | Auction date: 10 January 2010 |
| Lot number: 247 | |
| Lot description: Uncertain Asia Minor or Syrian mint. c. 1st century AD. Bronze, 2.99g. Obv: Female bust right, draped and veiled. Border of dots. Rx: Female figure, holding scepter, seated facing on eagle that is preparing to fly away. In lower right field, Χ. Border of dots. RPC Suppl. I, S-5482 (same dies, now BM). VF. Ex Dr. Stephen Gerson Collection. Another specimen, also from the same dies as ours, in the collection of Adam D. Philippidis, shown online in The House of Ptolemy Annex. The attribution and interpretation of this unusual coin are uncertain. RPC assumed that it had illegible inscriptions, but our fuller and finer specimen and the fine Philippidis specimen too show that it was apparently anepigraphic, apart from the mysterious X or monogram before the eagle on reverse. It is unclear to us why RPC calls the woman on the eagle Cybele, since Cybele's typical crown of towers, drum, and lions are missing, and there is no mention of a depiction of Cybele borne aloft by an eagle in Rapp's article on the goddess in Roscher's Lexikon der griechischen und romischen Mythologie. The reverse type would appear to depict the conveyance of a mortal to heaven, as it was later used to signify the apotheosis of several Roman emperors and empresses from Faustina I on. We are grateful to Adam D. Philippidis for notifying us of his specimen of this coin and pointing out the RPC reference, which we had overlooked. Estimate: US$250 |  |
