AUGUSTUS SILVER TETRADRACHM – AD 6 ISSUE – CHOICE FINE NGC GRADED ROMAN PROVINCIAL COIN (Inv. 19325)

$875.00

19325. ROMAN EMPIRE. AUGUSTUS, 27 BC–AD 14. PROVINCIAL ISSUE OF ANTIOCH.
Silver Tetradrachm, 25 mm. Issue of year 36 (Actian era) with Caesarian era date 54 (AD 6).
Obv. [KAIΣAPOΣ ΣEBAΣTOY], laureate head of Augustus right. Rev. ANTIOXEΩN MHTPOΠΟΛΕ[ΩΣ], Tyche seated right on rocky outcropping, holding palm, river god Orontes swimming to right, ϚΛ (Actian Era date = 30) above; in right field, ΔN (Caesarean Era date = 54) above civic monogram (ANTIOXIEΩN?).
Prieur 57; RPC 4158; McAlee 157.
NGC graded CHOICE FINE.

This issue, struck in Actian Era year 36 (AD 5/6), reflects the reassertion of Antiochene civic identity on the tetradrachms struck for Augustus. Whereas the surrounding reverse legend previously provided only the date of issue according to the Actian Era, it now names the Antiochenes as the issuing authority and advertises the status of Antioch as the Syrian mother city. It also drops the former use of numerals in the right field to indicate the emperor’s consulships and replaces them with dates calculated according to the city’s era of autonomy inaugurated when Julius Caesar visited Antioch on 16 April 47 BC.