★ The earliest known Armenian silver issue ★

KINGS OF ARMENIA MINOR. Mithradates, circa 180s-170s BC. Hemiobol (Silver, 6 mm, 0.19 g). Draped bust of Mithradates to left, bearded and wearing upright bashlyk tied with a diadem. Rev. Bee; around, traces of a Greek legend (?). Kovacs -. Leu Web Auction 27 (2023), 766. Of the highest rarity, the third known example. Of tremendous importance, the earliest known Armenian silver issue. Rough and porous, otherwise, fine.

From a European collection, formed before 2005.

The exceptional and unexpected discovery of these hemiobols antedates the first introduction of silver in the Armenian coinage by almost a century, namely from Tigranes II 'the Great' to Mithradates, King of Armenia Minor. Such a radical innovation fits in well with this king, whose coinage shows a bewildering number of types and varieties, most of which have only recently come to light. The experiment was soon abandoned, however, perhaps due to the lack of demand in the still only superficially monetarized Armenian society, and it was only in the 1st century BC that Tigranes II 'the Great' reintroduced a bimetallic currency system - first, on a very small scale, in circa 96-80 BC, and then on a much larger, imperial manner after his conquest of vast and much more monetarized regions in southern Asia Minor and Syria in the 80s-60s BC.