AUGUSTUS SILVER TETRADRACHM – LIKELY CHRIST BIRTH YEAR ISSUE FROM 2/1 BC – VF NGC GRADED ROMAN PROVINCIAL COIN (Inv. 19324)

$1,450.00

19324. ROMAN EMPIRE. AUGUSTUS, 27 BC-AD 14. PROVINCIAL ISSUE OF ANTIOCH.
Silver Tetradrachm, 14.81 g, 25 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 graded VF, Strike 5/5, Surface 3/5.

This coin may have been struck in the year of Christ’s birth. Although many scholars assume a date between 6 and 4 BC since King Herod died in 4 BC, a date of 2 BC is also possible 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.