20090926

Greece/Armenia; Tigranes II ‘the Great’. 95-56 BCE




 Æ Half Chalkous (4.8 g, 18 mm, 12h). Tigranakert mint. Struck 69-55 BC.

M&D 44; CAA 101 corr.; AC 66

O:Draped bust right, wearing five-pointed Armenian tiara decorated with star between two eagles

R: BAΣΙΛΕΩΣ BAΣΙΛΕΩN [TIΓPANOY], Herakles-Vahagn standing slightly left, holding club set on ground and lion skin; Δ-H across inner field.

The Δ-H controls appear on a tetradrachm of Antioch during his occupation of the Seleucid capital, so perhaps this coin may have also been struck during that time, since it shares the same controls...though the tet also has an M in the lower inner left.