Alexandreia (BC 171­-65) Didrachm

ca 102/1-66/5 BC. AR Didrachm (27mm, 6.98g, 12h). Archagoros, magistrate. Dated CY 199 (102/101 BC). Laureate head of Apollo left / Apollo Smintheus standing right, quiver over shoulder, holding bow, arrow, and patera; monogram to inner left, date to inner right, [magistrate’s name in exergue]. VF, broken and repaired (3h obv./9h rev.) without affecting design. Extremely rare - perhaps the only known didrachm from this series.

This coin is part of a series of dated issues that began during the time of Mithradates VI of Pontos (see Callataÿ, pp. 155-9). Consisting primarily of tetradrachms, of which fewer than 40 examples are known, this series was sporadically minted over the course of approximately 50 years. All of these issues bear the same types and monogram, but various magistrates’ names appear in the exergue on their reverses.