Obolos 12

KINGS OF SOPHENE. Arsames I, circa 255-225 BC. Dichalkon (Bronze, 17.5 mm, 3.22 g), first series. Diademed head of Arsames I to left, wearing bashlyk with beaded edges. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΡΣΑ[ΜΟΥ] Club. ACV -. CAA -. Kovacs - (but shares the same obverse die as lot 7 which is a variation to Kovacs 3). Extremely important and totally unpublished. Carefully doublestruck reverse, otherwise, good very fine.

From the collection of Yerets’ Kariatin, Switzerland.

Apart from being unique, this coin has also a particularly interesting die cutting mistake. The engraver while preparing the reverse die, didn't carve the letters of ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ mirror-like so that the inscription would appear normally on the coin, resulting this odd appearance of that word. In contrary, the ΑΡΣΑΜΟΥ looks like it is correctly engraved. It is possible that this mistake has to be blamed for the rejection of the reverse die and maybe the discontinuation of this type. It is funny that the die cutter did that childish mistake as we can see how skillful he was from the amazing obverse die. Of course there was more than one engraver in the royal mints.