Ave!

Phrygia, Apameia, Athena and Eagle!

Æ 21mm/7.2gm     Attalos and Bianoros, magistrates, Struck ca. 100-50 BC

Con/ Good Very Fine; Glossy black patina with sand fill.

Obv/ Bust of Athena right, wearing high-crested Corinthian helmet and an aegis, covered by monogram counter-mark!

Rev/ Eagle alighting on basis inscribed with meander pattern, star above, flanked by caps of the Dioscouri, star above each cap.

Ref/ SNG Copenhagen 165-6; HGC 7, 670

Seller's Note/ Such issues are not scarce, but ours with the monogram counter-mark is Rare!

Rome received Apameia with the Pergamene Kingdom in 133 B.C., but sold it to Mithridates V of Pontus, who held it till 120 BC. After the Mithridatic Wars it became a great center for trade, largely carried on by resident Italians and Jews. By order of Flaccus, nearly 45 kilograms of gold, intended by Jews for the Temple in Jerusalem was confiscated in Apamea in 62 B.C. Wow!