Nikopolis ad Istrum in Moesia Inferior, 138-161 AD., Antoninus Pius, Æ 20, Pick 1225.

Nikopolis ad Istrum in Moesia Inferior, Antoninus Pius, issued by Zeno, 138-161 AD.,
Æ 20 / Assarion(?) (20-22 mm / 6,90 g),
Obv.: AVT AI AΔPIA - ANTΩNEINOC , bare head of Antoninus Pius r. .
Rev.: HΓE ZHNΩNOC - N-EIKOΠOΛ , Apollo Sauroctonos (the "Lizard Killer") standing right, legs crossed, resting hand on a tree upon which a lizard is climbing.
Pick, AMNG I 349, 1225 var. (laureate head, 1 spec. listed) ; SNG Cop. - ; Varbanov 1679 var (legend) ; Moushmov 872 .

Thread: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=28625.msg324008#msg324008

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 34.69-70: "Praxiteles also, though more successful and consequently better known as a worker in marble, created admirable works in bronze: ...He...made a young Apollo with an arrow watching a lizard as it creeps up with intent to slay it close at hand; this is known as the sauroktonos or Lizard-slayer."

It is not known what connection existed between Nicopolis and Apollo Sauroktonos, or even the reason for the lizard hunt, but the type appears on the city's coins several times in the Antonine and Severan periods. This specimen is the earliest and most elegant representation of this famous sculpture.

Pat L.: "Yes, indeed, that is the best specimen of the signed Zeno Sauroktonos that I have seen, Pick 1225. It remains (assuming that the signed one is at least as early as the unsigned ones that are very similar--those in Varbanov) the earliest Sauroktonos Apollo on a coin, since it is very improper to call the deliberate spin-off at Apollonia ad Rhyndacum a "Sauroktonos". It never has a lizard or a tree."