KINGS OF ARMENIA. Tiridates II (?), circa 217-252. Half Unit (Bronze, 13x17 mm, 2.00 g, 12 h), Artaxata. Bearded head of Tiridates II to left, wearing five-pointed tiara tied with a diadem; all within laurel wreath. Rev. Stylized twin peaks of Mount Ararat, as seen from above; below, river Araxes (?); all within laurel wreath. Kovacs -. Leu Web Auction 32 (2025), 714. Extremely rare, apparently the third known example. Somewhat smoothed and rough, otherwise, very fine.


The assignment of the latest Armenian coins remains problematic today due to the crude and often rudimentary Aramaic legends. We follow Kovacs, who attributes these pieces to Tiridates II (217-252 AD), indicating that royal-Armenian coins were issued for the last time after a 140-year interruption following the death of Tiridates I around 77 AD. In the series of Tiridates II, the coins featuring Mount Ararat are by far the rarest. The present coin differs from the two types known to Kovacs in that it depicts the two peaks of Ararat not in profile but seemingly from above, with the line below the double mountain likely representing the Araxes River, along whose banks the Armenian capital, Artaxata, was established - an extraordinary depiction in ancient numismatics that is surprisingly similar to our modern understanding of cartography, contrasting sharply with the typical ancient description of the Earth's surface as a series of geographic points arranged itinerantly.