Side (AD 254-268) AE 31 - Salonina

Salonina, Augusta, 254-268 AD. AE31 - 11 Assaria (16.29g, 1h). Draped bust right, wearing stephane; IA (mark of value) before / Tyche seated left on rocks; at feet, half-length figure of river-god Melas swimming right; all within tetrastyle shrine; pomegranate above, Δ–Є flanking roof of shrine. Near VF, rough green patina. Rare. Group CEM.

An interesting type which copies a very identifiable shrine found on the coinage of Antioch. The engraver even went so far as to copy the “Δ Є” found on the Antiochene types, which is generally thought to stand for the office of the emperor as tribune (Δημαρχικης Єξουςιας) or, more likely, for the four eparchies (Δ Єπαρχειων) which the Antiochene coinage would circulate in: Commagene, Coele-Syria, Syria, and Phoenicia.