ANCIENT ARABIAN COINAGE: Hadrian Visits Petra, AD 131.

[JAZ Numismatics]

In AD 131, the fourteenth year of his reign, Hadrian visited Petra. Provincia Arabia had been established in AD 106, and at the time, Trajan granted the city the honorific "Metropolis," so as to not diminish its importance compared to the new capitol of the province, Bostra (more on that in a forthcoming post). Curiously, Petra did not mint any coins for Trajan. The first new issues from Petra were semi-autonomous bronzes with a bust of Tyche and double cornucopia, over which was the monogram M under a large Π, for  ΠΕΤΡΑ ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΙϹ. These followed well-established Nabataean types, such as the coin of Rabbel II pictured below. 

These semi-autonomous issues are quite scarce, suggesting that they were a limited run. The Nabataeans kept their small bronzes in circulation for centuries, so the coinage of previous kings probably continued to serve in commerce. This would not have threatened Roman authority in any way, as Nabataea had been a vassal kingdom of Rome since the reign of Aretas III (87-62 BC).

 

At some point after Hadrian's accession, Petra began striking coins bearing his bust in three denominations, roughly equivalent in size and weight to an as, semis, and quadrans. The quadrantes...

 

When Hadrian visited the city, he named it after himself, Adriane Petra Metropolis. Hence the coins come in two varieties, with reverse legends, ΠΕΤΡΑ ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΙϹ, and ΑΔΡΙΑΝΗ ΠΕΤΡΑ ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΙϹ. It's tempting to assign a chronology because of these legends, and certainly ΑΔΡΙΑΝΗ ΠΕΤΡΑ ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΙϹ would not have been struck before AD 131. But it doesn't necessarily follow that ΠΕΤΡΑ ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΙϹ was struck only from 117 to 131, as issues by later emperors do not establish any sort of pattern. Sometimes you see the full city title, sometimes only "Petra Metropolis," sometimes only "Petra." I have only one of the medium denominations, with bust of Tyche reverse and ΠΕΤΡΑ ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΙϹ...

 

The largest denomination features Tyche seated, extending her right hand, holding a trophy in her left...

 

Finally, some of these largest coins are found in extremely worn condition, and sometimes countermarked with the letter B and a small right-facing bust. Were they repurposed as military tokens? Legio III Cyrenaica maintained a garrison at Petra. Or did they become gaming tokens?

 

Do you have any Roman city coins of Petra? If so, let's see them!

 

 

[CPK]

Interesting history and coins. Thanks for posting!

Unfortunately, I don't have any coins of ancient Petra. I may have to rectify that deficiency...

[seth77]

The most likely reason for the B cm is to mark a denomination. Two of something, possibly assaria as the system 1:2:4 might suggest?

[Factor]

Very interesting coins! I have about a hundred of Petra coins, though not all of them are in decent condition. For example I don't have a good specimen of the second Hadrian's type with seated Tyche and ΑΔΡΙΑΝΗ in the legend:

Let's continue with Antoninus Pius, most of them are more scarce than Hadrianus:

[JAZ Numismatics]

15 minutes ago, Factor said:

Very interesting coins! I have about a hundred of Petra coins, though not all of them are in decent condition. For example I don't have a good specimen of the second Hadrian's type with seated Tyche and ΑΔΡΙΑΝΗ in the legend:

Let's continue with Antoninus Pius, most of them are more scarce than Hadrianus:

Great set of coins! If you ever want to part with any of the Antoninus Pius issues, please let me know first! I suspect they're scarcer than Hadrian's coins because Hadrian's were minted in such quantities, that there was no real need for any more bronzes. AP's issues were largely symbolic. But of course that's pure conjecture...