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Lot 81. Hadrianus Tetrassaria, Antinoos as river-god Alpheios reverse, Olympia, extremely rare, ex BCD

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The only specimen in private hands
Hadrianus Tetrassaria, Antinoos as river-god Alpheios reverse, Olympia, extremely rare, ex BCD

Time left: 		Bidding closed (Sunday, December 18th, 19:40:30 CET)
Current time: Tuesday, May 7th, 00:17:00 CEST
Price realised: CHF 3'200.00 (6 bids)
Approx. EUR 3'284.40 / USD 3'534.56 / GBP 2'812.27
High bidder: Bidder 4

eAuction #1, Lot 81. Estimate: CHF 1'800.00

Hadrianus (117-138 AD). AE Tetrassaria (31 mm, 24.04 g), Elis, Olympia, 134 AD.
Obv. AVTOKPATWP AΔPIANOC, bare-headed and cuirassed bust right.
Rev. HLЄIWN, the river-god Alpheios (with features of Antinoos) reclining on waves of water to left, holding a wreath in his right hand and reeds in his left; amphora at feet.
Imhoof-Blumer, Fluss- und Meergötter, SNR XXIII (1923), p. 254, 204 (pl. VII, 13) = LIMC I, sv. Aplheios 2 and 4 = Seltman 1948, 3 = Franke 33 (all illustrating the same coin from the Rhousopoulos collection, now in Berlin); NCP p. 71, 1.

Extremely rare, the only specimen not in a museum (either in Berlin or in Olympia). Fine, black patina.

From the BCD collection and ex Leu 90 (2004), 321.

The figure of Alpheios on the reverse of this coin is a close adaptation of the 5th century BC figure of the river god who appears on the east pediment of the Zeus Temple in Olympia (LIMC I, sv. Alpheios 8), but by giving him the head of Antinoos the artist has created an altogether more interesting image. Antinoos, Hadrian’s lover who drowned in the Nile in 130, is shown as an ideal youth, lying above the waves, symbolizing both his death and his post-mortem honors as a quasi-divine hero.



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