Sale: Nomos 6, Lot: 164. Estimate CHF450.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 May 2012.  Sold For CHF360. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Tyana, Cappadocia. Septimius Severus. 193-211. Tetrassarion (Bronze, 28mm, 15.19 g 1), regnal year 4 = 196/7. ...CΕΠ CΕΟΥΗΡΟC ΠΕΡ Laureate head of Septimius Severus to right. Rev. ΤΥΑΝΕWΝ Τ Π Τ ΙΕ Κ ΑCΥΛΟΥ Κ Α (of the people of Tyana, those on the Tauros, holy, with the right of asylum and autonomous) Humped back bull standing right. BMC 8. With an interesting portrait of Septimius Severus from early in his reign. Attractive green patina. Good very fine.

From the M Collection, ex Classical Numismatic Group 70, 21 September 2005, 591.

Some of the cities of eastern Asia Minor, especially in Cilicia but also to the north, in Cappadocia, specialized in abbreviating a wide range of honorary titles on their coinage. The ones given here are relatively simple, but they do imply that many of the people who would have used this coin were not only literate, but fully cognizant of the meaning of all these letters!