RPC II, 725

 

Image of specimen #1

 

Coin type
Volume II
Number 725
Province Bithynia-Pontus
Region Paphlagonia
City Sinope
Reign Domitian
Obverse inscription
Obverse design facing herm
Reverse inscription C I F(?) ANN CXXX[ ]
Edition c(olonia) I(ulia) F(elix) ann(o) CXXX[---]
Translation the Julian colony of Felix (Sinope), in year 13[.]
Reverse design two oxen, left; above plough
Metal copper-based alloy
Average diameter 16 mm
Average weight 2.70 g
Reference Rec 103
Specimens 1 (1 in the core collections)
Note The attribution of 1 to Sinope has been doubted. For example, M. Grant, Aspects of the Principate of Tiberius (1950), p. 19, From Imperium to Auctoritas (1946), p. 253 note 2, read CGIP instead of CIF, implying an attribution to Parium; W. Leschhorn, Antike Ären (1993), p. 381, left the question open, while relating the coin to the similarly problematic coin of Antoninus Pius with a herm on the rev. and the date CLXXXII (C: SNG 4204), which has been attributed to Parium. But the colony's name cannot be read on the C coin. A second specimen exists in L Parium (I927-2-I2-4); it too could be read as CGIP, but the C seems, in fact, to be part of the plough above the oxen, and it is impossible to tell whether the last letter is a P or an F. The type does seem more likely to be a coin of Sinope than of Parium on present evidence. A facing herm occurs on other coins of Sinope, e.g. of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina (Rec 114, 118), although the coins of Sinope under Caligula and Nero with ploughing scene (RPC I, 2129, 2133, 2140) show the oxen with two colonists and 725 has no colonists. The date was read by Rec as year 130 = AD 84/5, but it is quite possible that there are more numerals after CXXX[ ]. Year 13[ ] would be some time in or after AD 84/5.

Specimens of this coin type

Number Number Museum Bibliography
1 1     ✸ P: 781 Rec pl XXVII.15