★ Very rare ★

ASIA MINOR. Uncertain mint. Geta Caesar, 198-209. Assarion (Bronze, 20.5 mm, 5.65 g, 7 h), usually ascribed to the mint of Buthrotum in Epirus, but this attribution is highly unlikely ). P SEPT GETA Bareheaded, draped, and cuirassed bust of Geta to right. Rev. STA / BOV Bull standing to right. Gorny & Mosch 165, 2008, 1442 ( same dies, as Augustus and from an uncertain mint ). Naumann 44, 2016, 554 ( Geta with head bare, as Caesar, and Buthrotum? ). Cf. Obolos 20, 2021, 959 ( Geta laureate, as Augustus, and Buthrotum ). Cf. CNG e353, 2015, 356 and Solidus 17, May 2014, 112 ( Geta laureate, as Augustus, and Buthrotum? ). Cf. Solidus 13, February 2014, 35 ( Geta laureate, as Augustus, and as an uncertain mint ). Very rare, and with a light green patina. Minor marks, otherwise, good very fine.

From the collection of a scholar, and once on the market in Munich.

There seems to be no reason for ascribing this coin to Buthrotum! The first example of a coin bearing these types appeared in 2008 and was inexplicably ascribed to Geta Augustus (despite the lack of a laurel wreath on the head of Geta and the lack of a title), and to an uncertain city. Two appeared in 2014 with Solidus, the first was ascribed to an uncertain mint but the second had the mint indicated as "Buthrotum?" Two further examples, from the same dies as the first Solidus piece, turned up in CNG and Nomos (with with the same description - presumably copied from each other - except that the Nomos cataloguer dropped the (?). The big question is why should a Latin language (!) coinage be struck for Geta (as both Caesar and Augustus) at Buthrotum, which hadn't struck anything since the time of Nero? The city was a colony, but the city's name was given as BUTHR, BVT or B, not BOV! And what does STA stand for? Perhaps the initial GoMo attribution as being from an "uncertain" mint would be best; and a mint in Asia Minor rather than in Epirus!