Draped bust right, wearing Armenian tiara (Prow of galley left from the overstruck undertype) / Blank. 16 mm, 3,15 g. Tigranocerta mint.

 

Very interesting coin, overstruck on a phoenician bronze issue with an obverse die alone. Very unusual and rare.

 

Tigranes II, more commonly known as Tigranes the Great (140 55 BC) was King of Armenia under whom the country became, for a short time, the strongest state to Rome's east. He was a member of the Artaxiad Royal House. Under his reign, the Armenian kingdom expanded beyond its traditional boundaries, allowing Tigranes to claim the title Great King, and involving Armenia in many battles against opponents such as then and Seleucid empires, and the Roman Republic.