Moesia inferior, Nikopolis ad Istrum, 06. Antoninus Pius, HrHJ (2018) 8.06.07.01 (plate coin)

Antoninus Pius, AD 138-161
AE 20, 5.85g, 20.28mm, 180°
struck under governor M. Antonius Zenon, c. AD 145 (Pick)
obv. AVT AI ADRIA - ANTWNEINOC
bare head r.
rev. HGE ZHNWNOC - NEIKOPOL (odd K)
Apollo Sauroktonos stg. l., leaning with l. hand on tree on which lizard is
climbing up, r. hand at hip.
ref. a) AMNG I/1, 1225 var. (head laureate, 1 Ex., Gotha)
b) Varbanov (engl.) 2111 var. (laureate)
c) Hristova/Hoeft/Jekov (2018) No. 8.6.7.1 (plate coin)
d) RPC online temp no. 4328
Rare, about VF, black patina, some roughness
added to www.wildwinds.com

This is the earliest and most elegant depiction of the Praxiteles statue which is described by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History 34.69-70, but without an arrow on this type. Pick: 'May be that there is a lizard creeping up the tree.' Here the lizard could be seen clearly.