301, Lot: 212. Estimate $100. Sold for $900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHOENICIA, Tyre. Severus Alexander. AD 222-235. Æ (15mm, 2.85 g, 6h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Dido, holding scepter or banner, on deck of galley; murex shell to upper left. Rouvier –; BMC –; AUB –; SNG Copenhagen –. Near VF, dark green patina. An interesting and seemingly unpublished piece. This cataloguer has never seen such a small Tyrian bronze from this period.

A similar reverse appears on larger module bronzes, known to Rouvier from Diadumenian through Gordian III. These feature two sailors on deck, which had to be omitted due to the small size of the reverse die used for the current piece. Based on Rouvier’s breakdown of the denominations for Tyre, this piece would be a hemichalkous.