AUGUSTUS SILVER TETRADRACHM – LIKELY CHRIST BIRTH YEAR ISSUE FROM 2/1 BC – VF NGC GRADED ROMAN PROVINCIAL COIN (Inv. 18402)

$575.00

18402. ROMAN EMPIRE. AUGUSTUS, 27 BC–AD 14. PROVINCIAL ISSUE OF ANTIOCH.
Silver Tetradrachm, 27 mm. Issue of year 30 (Actian era) with consular date XIII (2/1 BC).
Obv. KAIΣAPOΣ ΣEBAΣTOY, laureate head of Augustus right. Rev. Tyche seated right on rocky outcropping, holding palm, river god Orontes swimming to right, ETOVΣ Λ NIKHΣ (Actian Era date = 30) above; in right field, IΓ (consular date =XIII) above civic monogram (ANTIOXIEΩN?).
Prieur, 55; McAlee, 185.
NGC VF, small planchet crack.

The 2 BC date on this coin has been offered as an alternative possible birth date for Jesus Christ based on the Gospel of Luke, which states that Jesus began his ministry in “the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar” (i.e. AD 28/29) when he was “about 30 years” old (Luke 3:1-2 and 3: 23). The 2 BC hypothesis has also been supported by some astronomers, who suggest that an ultra-bright conjunction of Jupiter and Venus on June 17 of that year was the Star of Bethlehem that appeared to signal the birth of Christ.