Pontos, Uncertain, possibly Amisos.
Struck under Mithradates VI (Circa 119-100 BC) Obverse: Head of horse right, with star of eight points on its neck.
Reverse: Comet star of eight points with trail to right (or palm branch with tainia and star).
References: BM Black Sea 984, SNG Stancomb 653 corr.
Size: 11mm, 1.5g
Note: This unusual issue has traditionally been assigned to an uncertain mint in the area of Pontos, but it has currently been suggested that it was struck in Caesarea-Eusebia (cf. Lanz 160, 15 June 2015, 249).

The comets depicted are almost certainly the comets described in Justin’s epitome of the Historiae Philippicae of the Augustan historian Pompeius Trogus (Justin 37.2.1-2): “The future greatness of this man [Mithridates Eupator] had been foretold by heavenly portents. For both in the year in which he was born [134/133 B.C.] and in the year in which he first began to rule [120/119 B.C.], a comet gleamed so brightly for 70 days throughout each period that the whole sky seemed to be on fire. In its extent, each of these comets filled one quarter of the sky and surpassed the sun in brilliance. They took four hours to rise and four hours to set.”