Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Drachm
| Issuer | Arados |
|---|---|
| Year | 161 BC - 160 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | BMC Greek#157 |
| Obverse description | Bee with outspread straight wings rendered in high relief, facing, centrally placed within a beaded border. To the left of the bee, the Aradian civic era date ΘϘ (= year 99) appears in the field. To the right, a retrograde sigma (Σ) serving as a control mark. The bee is depicted with fine anatomical detail, including segmented abdomen, prominent head, and spread legs, in the accomplished engraving style characteristic of Aradian silver coinage. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Arados — the Phoenician island city of Arwad, just off the Syrian coast — maintained remarkable autonomy through successive empires, and its civic coinage reflects that stubborn independence. By the mid-second century BC, the city was operating under Seleucid suzerainty but retained the right to strike its own silver, dating issues to its own municipal era rather than any royal reckoning. This particular drachm falls within year 152–153 of the Aradian era, a dating system the city had used continuously since around 259 BC.