KINGS OF ARMENIA. Tigranes II ‘the Great’, 95-56 BC. Tetrachalkon (Bronze, 17 mm, 7.03 g, 10 h), Tigranokerta (?). 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 / TIΓPANOY Elephant walking to right; to right, [T]. AC 116. CCA 123. Kovacs -. Extremely rare and of great historical interest. Fine.



The bronzes of Tigranes II, featuring the massive elephant striding to the right, are among the rarest coins in the great Armenian king’s coinage. Surprisingly, Kovacs did not include them in his book, even though they are listed by both Bedoukian and Nercessian. Perhaps he confused them with the much later elephant coins of Tigranes VI, or it may simply have been an oversight. In any case, the type clearly stems from Seleukid prototypes – the former Macedonian hegemonic power in Asia had incorporated the Indian elephant early into its imperial symbolism. Therefore, these coins do not prove that Tigranes II actually led elephants into battle, but rather, in imitatio Seleucidae, they testify to his imperial ambitions.

Notably, the few known specimens feature a 'T' in the right field, which may represent the initial of Tigranokerta. The minting of such coins in his new capital, which Tigranes II founded and grandly expanded around 80 BC, would certainly make sense. On these coins, the Armenian king appears as a quintessential Hellenized indigenous ruler of his time. On the obverse, we see him adorned with typical Armenian regalia, while the reverse portrays him in Seleukid tradition as an imperial world conqueror. The founding of an eponymous capital further distinguishes him as a founder-king, an archetypal role of Hellenistic rulers in general and Seleukid kings in particular.