PRUSIAS I SILVER TETRADRACHM – LARGE PLANCHET ISSUE – CHOICE VF NGC GRADED GREEK BITHYNIAN KINGDOM COIN (Inv. 19562)

$1,250.00

19562. BITHYNIAN KINGDOM. PRUSIAS I, ca. 230–180 BC.
Silver Tetradrachm, 16.91 g, 36 mm.
Obv. Diademed head of Prusias right. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΠΡΟΥΣΙΟΥ, Zeus standing left, holding scepter and crowning royal name, thunderbolt above ME and ANΣ control monograms in left field.
HGC 7, 614; Waddington 9b; Jameson 1387; SNG von Aulock 6878.
NGC graded CHOICE VF, Strike 5/5, Surface 2/5, “brushed,” “light graffito,” struck on a very broad planchet, minor traces of encrustation.

Prusias I was arguably one of the most powerful of the native kings of Bithynia. He expanded the kingdom to include territories in Bithynia and Mysia previously controlled by Byzantium and the Attalid kingdom, respectively. An alliance with Philip V of Macedon and territorial disputes meant that Prusias I was frequently at war with the Attalids for most of his reign. The Bithynian king infamously gave refuge to the great Hannibal and made use of a stratagem devised by the Carthaginian general involving the launching of baskets filled with poisonous snakes onto the decks of attacking Attalid war galleys during his war against Eumenes II in 187–183 BC. Prusias was ultimately defeated and forced to give up his claims to Attalid Phrygia and to surrender Hannibal to the Romans. During the conflict, however, he did gain the unfortunate nickname Cholos (“the Lame”) after he was injured by a stone thrown from the walls of Heraclea Pontica.