AUGUSTUS SILVER TETRADRACHM – CHRIST LIFETIME ANTIOCH ISSUE OF YEAR 36 (AD 6) – CHOICE VF NGC GRADED ROMAN PROVINCIAL COIN OF THE 12 CAESARS (Inv. 19306)

$950.00

19306. ROMAN EMPIRE. AUGUSTUS, 27 BC–AD 14. PROVINCIAL ISSUE OF ANTIOCH.
Silver Tetradrachm, 14.89 g, 27 mm. Issue of year 36 (Actian era) and year 54 of the Caesarean Era (AD 6).
Obv. KAIΣAPOΣ ΣEBAΣTOY, laureate head of Augustus right. Rev. ANTIOXEΩN MHTPOΠΟΛΕΩΣ, Tyche seated right on rocky outcropping, holding palm, river god Orontes swimming to right, dates in field, above civic monogram ANTX (ANTIOXIEΩN?).
Prieur 57; RPC 4158.
NGC graded CHOICE VF, Strike 4/5, Surface 2/5, a coin struck during Christ’s lifetime, some 10 years after his birth which is placed sometime between 6 and 4 BC.

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.