Sale: Triton V, Lot: 492. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 January 2002.  Sold For $700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CARIA, Islands off. Rhodes . Circa 30 BC. Æ 31mm (23.56 gm). [NIKI]AS, head of Nikias right wearing a slight beard, band in hair / KWIWN KALLIPPIDHS, laureate head of Asklepios right. RPC I 2728; SNG Helsinki -; SNG Copenhagen 689; BMC Caria pg. 213, 198; SNG von Aulock 2764 var. (magistrate); Laffaille 500 var. (same). VF, brown and green patina, minor adjustment marks on either side. Rare. ($750)

The elusive Nikias apparently seized power in Kos in the late Republican period, perhaps taking advantage of turmoil within the Roman Empire. He is usually dated between about 50 BC and the reign of Augustus, but the only evidence for his date is the style of portrait, which seem's to be strongly influenced by the portraiture of Octavian. His coinage, however, has not yet been fully studied, and even the sequence of his mint magistrates has not yet been established.