Catalog
Æ16
| Issuer | Arados |
|---|---|
| Year | 242 BC - 166 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Prow of a war galley advancing to the left, surmounted by an Athena figurehead depicted in combat pose, brandishing a spear and shield to the left. A monogram appears in the upper field above the prow. The design is enclosed within a border of dots, a typical convention of Aradian civic bronze coinage. The abbreviation AP in Greek characters identifies the issuing city of Arados. |
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| Reverse lettering | ΑΡ (Translation: Arados) |
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| Additional information |
Arados — the island city-state off the Syrian coast, modern Arwad — maintained remarkable autonomy through successive Ptolemaic and Seleucid overlordships, and its bronze coinage reflects that stubborn civic independence. The city ran its own era dating system beginning in 259 BC, one of the few Phoenician cities to do so, which allows these bronzes to be dated with unusual precision relative to most Hellenistic civic issues. The Duyrat corpus, the definitive modern study of Aradian coinage, distinguishes several die groups within this range based on control marks — minor symbols that accumulate into a surprisingly granular chronology.