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Sale 46
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Lot 35
Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporos. Pharnakes II, 63-47 BC. Gold Stater (8.24 g), Panticapaeum mint, struck 53/52 BC. Diademed bust of Pharnakes right, with luxuriant hair. Reverse: Apollo, semi-draped, seated left on lion-footed throne, holding laurel branch over tripod, left elbow resting on kithara at his side; name and titles above and below, X monogram to right, EMS above (year 245, Pontic Era). Golenko & Karyszkowski, "The Gold Coinage of King Pharnaces of the Bosporus," in Numismatic Chronicle, 1972, no. 6 (same dies); Fr-156. Finely centered on a spacious, nearly round flan. Lustrous. Exemplary, sensitive portrait -- among the finest in this series. Very Rare. NGC graded About Uncirculated.
Pharnakes is, in general, little known to history, but for being the subject of an acerbic quip, made famous in Caesar's chronicles of the Civil Wars. Typical of the politics of the era, Pharnakes II, who was the son of Rome's implacable enemy, Mithradates VI, "the Great," forced his father to commit suicide in 64 BC to placate the Roman general Pompey, who had surrounded Pharnakes' citadel at Panticapaeum. In compensation Pompey granted Pharnakes the title King of the Bosporus and left him alone to his own devices. Meanwhile Rome went on to annex large swaths of the Middle East and Asia Minor.
With the death of the Armenian king Tigranes II, the Great, in 55/4 BC, Pharnakes felt safely ambitious enough to assume the deceased king's title of "Great King of Kings" - that seen on the above gold coin. Later, sensing opportunity at reclaiming some of the vast empire created by his father, Pharnakes quickly threw in his lot with Pompey when civil war broke out between Caesar and Pompey in 49 BC. His initial military successes in the area evaporated with Caesar marching north into Asia Minor in 48 BC, in order to restore the situation and avenge Roman losses. Pharnakes' army proved no match against Caesar's battle-hardened troops at the battle of Zela, in mid-47 BC, and were quickly routed. Thus Caesars' "Veni, Vedi, Vinci" -- one of the more famous literary quips to survive from antiquity.
Estimated Value $20,000 - 25,000.
At the time of the Numismatic Chronicle survey, Golenko & Karyszkowski had assembled a corpus of 15 known specimens of the Pharnakes gold coins, ranging in date from c. 55-50 BC. Since then a few more examples have surfaced, with a total known population probably not exceeding 25. Of these, 10 are located within museum collections. The famed Hunt specimen, with nearly as fine a portrait, but of a somewhat lower grade (Extremely Fine), realized $29,700 (including the 10% premium) in the Sotheby New York sale of June 19, 1990 (lot 115). Illustrated in Money of the World, coin 22.
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| Realized $83,375 |
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