EGYPT, Alexandria. Claudius, with Britannicus, Antonia, and Octavia. AD 41-54. BI Didrachm (19mm, 6.48 g, 12h). Dated RY 3 (AD 42/3). TI KΛAY KAI CEBAC ΓEPM, laureate head right; L Γ (date) before / AYTO/KPA in two lines, crossed cornucopias, each surmounted by female bust (Antonia and Octavia), vis-à-vis; between them, bust of a young boy right (Britannicus). Köln –; Dattari (Savio) 118; K&G 12.24; RPC I 5135; Emmett 75.3 (R3); B. Lichocka, “Claudius’s Issue of Silver Didrachms in Alexandria: Emperor’s Children and Crossed Cornucopias” in Ètudes et Travaux XXVI (Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, 2013), pp. 428-45. Toned, small spots of verdigris. Near EF. Very rare. Nine specimens known to RPC, all in well worn condition; this is the finest known.
An extremely rare coin, and the only collectible didrachm (billon or otherwise) issued in Alexandria during the Roman period. (Erik Christiansen in The Roman Coins of Alexandria lists two unique didrachms for Nero, regnal years 3 and 4, the first in Athens, the second in Berlin). Claudius also issued a billon drachm (RPC I 5136), which is of equal rarity.
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