AUGUSTUS SILVER TETRADRACHM – 2/1 BC ISSUE REGARDED BY SOME AS AN ALTERNATE DATE FOR CHRIST’S BIRTH – VF NGC GRADED ROMAN PROVINCIAL COIN (Inv. 18198)

$1,200.00

18198. ROMAN EMPIRE. AUGUSTUS, 27 BC–AD 14. PROVINCIAL ISSUE OF ANTIOCH.
Silver Tetradrachm, 28 mm. Issue of year 30 (Actian era) with consular date XIII (2/1 BC).
Obv. KAIΣAPOΣ ΣEBAΣTOY, laureate head of Augustus right. Rev. ETOYΣ ΝΙΚΗΣ, Tyche seated right on rocky outcropping, holding palm, river god Orontes swimming to right, Λ (Actian Era date = 30) above; in right field, IΓ (consular date =XIII) above civic monogram (ANTIOXIEΩN?).
Prieur 55; RPC 4156; McAlee 185.
NGC graded VF.

This tetradrachm may have been struck in Roman Syria in the year of Jesus’ birth if the custom of early Christian apologists counting back 30 years from the date of his baptism given at Luke 3:23 (he was “about 30” in the fifteenth year of Tiberius) is correct. Actian Era year 30 (2/1 BC), the date of this coin, falls precisely 30 years before Tiberius’ regnal year 15 (AD 28/9). Thus, coins like this were changing hands in Roman Syria at the very time that one of the most important events in Christian history was taking place in neighboring Judaea.