KINGS OF ARMENIA. Tigranes II ‘the Great’, 95-56 BC. Tetrachalkon (Bronze, 22 mm, 7.96 g, 1 h), Tigranokerta, circa 80-68. Draped bust of Tigranes II to right, wearing five-pointed tiara decorated with a star between two eagles and tied with a diadem. Rev. [BAΣIΛEΩΣ] - BAΣI[ΛEΩN] / TIΓP[ANOY] Tyche of Tigranokerta seated to right on rock, holding palm branch in her right hand; below, river-god Araxes swimming right. Kovacs 77. Drilling hole on the obverse and with traces of overstriking and countermarking (?), otherwise, good fine.


This coin was overstruck on an earlier issue of Apameia in Syria: the upper part of the turreted city-goddess is still visible on the obverse, whereas the reverse shows the beginning of the reverse legend: AΠAMEΩN / THΣ IEΡA[Σ - KAI AΣΥΛOΥ]. The drilling hole on the obverse may have been applied to devaluate a coin on which the undertype obscured most of the royal imagery and titles.