This coin was an attribution challenge - I purchased it as a provincial coin of Trajan Decius, Roman emperor from CE 249 to 251 from an unknown mint. The crudely engraved portrait attracted me to this coin, as did the mystery.
Roman Provincial, UNCERTAIN MINT. Trajanus Decius (249-251). Ae (6g, 27mm).
Obv: [...] TPAIANON ΔЄΚΙΟ, Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right.
Rev: Emperor(?) standing left, holding patera and sceptre; eagle to lower right.
I wandered down some dead-ends looking for similar coins in Antioch, Messenia, Mothone and thinking the reverse depicted Zeus with an eagle at his feet. Google image search and ACSearch both useful for trying to find coins that might fit the bill.
With an ACSearch image search I found an earlier attempt to sell the same coin:
Numismatik Naumann 02-June-2024 https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=12892444
and another sale - this time with the proper attribution : My zeus with eagle is really Apollo with raven and the city is Selinus-Traianopolis!
N&N London 01-May-2023 https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=10929820
Here's the full attribution with link to the reference in Roman Provincial Coins (RPC):
Cilicia, Selinus-Traianopolis. Trajan Decius. AD 249-251. Æ (27mm, 6.0 g).
Obv: ΑΥΤ ΚΑΙ ΜΕϹ ΚΥ ΤΡΑ ΔΕΚΙΟϹ ϹΕΒ, Radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind
Rev: ΤΡΑΙΑΝΟ ϹΕΛΙΝΟΥ ΤΗϹ ΙΕΡΑϹ, Apollo standing facing, head left, holding phiale and scepter; raven at feet.
Ref: RPC IX 1303
Here's an early 19th century view of Selinus, or Selinity formerly Trajanopopis:
Image Source: Francis Beaufort, 1817, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, from BEAUFORT, Francis, F.R.S. Karamania or a brief description of the South coast of Asia Minor and the remains of Antiquity, with plans, views, &c. collected during a survey of that coast, under the orders of the lords commissioners of the admiralty, in the years 1811 & 1812, London, R. Hunter, 1817.
Where is Selinos (Trajanapolis)?
selinow was in Cilicia on the south eastern shore of modern Turkiye.
There is only one of these coins known to RPC from CNG EA 250, 23 Feb. 2011, lot 234 (0 in the core collections). This coin shares obverse and reverse dies with two other coins in RPC 1304, RPC 1305 (Trajan Decius) and reverse die with 1306 (Herennia Etruscilla) - all coin issued from Selinus-Traianopolis.
Mystery solved! and an entertaining and rare coin added to the collection.
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