ARTIC-EG
Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian) · other
Tetradrachm (Coin) Portraying Emperor Nero
Description
The front (obverse) of this coin portrays Emperor Nero, facing right, radiate. The date this coin was struck is indicated in the inscription " LIB ", which means the twelfth year of his reign, or 65-66 CE. Nero reigned as emperor from 54-68 CE. The back (reverse) depicts a bust of Alexandria, facing right, wearing an elephant's scalp as a headress.
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
Two views of a small silver-gray coin showing the profile of a Roman emperor on one side and an emblematic design on the reverse.
The image provides obverse and reverse views of a round, metal coin. On the left side, a right-facing male portrait with short hair and a laurel/diadem-like element appears in relief; surrounding legend-like marks are present but are not clearly readable as hieroglyphs or in any known Egyptian script. On the right side, the same portrait type appears again in profile, surrounded by additional incised lettering/marks that are also too unclear to confidently identify. No Egyptian hieroglyphs, cartouches, or clearly legible Greek/Coptic/Arabic text are visible. The catalogue title specifies a tetradrachm portraying Emperor Nero; the iconography (imperial-style portrait and coin format) is broadly consistent with a Roman imperial coin, but the exact name/legend cannot be read from this image. Therefore, specific royal names/cartouches and script identifications remain unconfirmed. The metal surface appears silvery and consistent with the stated billon.
photographic documentation
Roman Imperial period (Neronian, 1st century CE) — approximate
good
Materials
metal coin (billon)
Signs
Unidentified legend/lettering around portrait (not legible enough to classify script)
Inscriptions (1)
Inscription #1
English description
Obverse: NEΡΩ KΛAY KAIΣ Σ[EB ΓEΡ] Reverse: AY[TO KΡA], below LIB
Cross-references (1)
- ARTIC-id 142277 tier-2
Similar inscriptions · by content embedding
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.