From the Gemini IV Auction, Closed January 8, 2008.



                  Lot # 478 - Auction is closed.Estimate: US$300 / Price 
                  Realized: US$350 
                  Gordian III. Silver antoninianus with overstruck reverse 



             



            Gordian III. (238-244 AD). Silver antoninianus with overstruck 
            reverse (5.01 gm). Antioch, 239 AD. IMP CAES M ANT GORDIANVS AVG, 
            bust radiate, draped, cuirassed right / Dated Providentia type 
            overstruck at 180 degree rotation on AEQVITAS AVG type. Visible of 
            the overtype: [P M TR] P II COS P P, upper half of Providentia’s 
            body facing left, extending right hand (globe invisible) and holding 
            transverse scepter, plus the ground line and her feet. Surviving of 
            the undertype: [AEQVIT]AS AVG, upper half of Aequitas’ body facing 
            left, attached upside down to the upper half of Providentia’s body, 
            right hand holding scales eradicated, top of cornucopia visible 
            beside her left shoulder. Bland 44/21 (this coin). RIC 172 over 177. 
            Cohen 196 over 17. About extremely fine. 

            Ex Triton V, 2002, George His Collection, lot 2068. Ex Sternberg 
            XIX, 18–19 November 1987, lot 744. 

            This coin and four other early Antioch antoniniani of Gordian III 
            with overstruck reverses were published by Johan van Heesch, “Un 
            antoninien refrappe de Gordien III emis a Antioche,” Cercle d’Etudes 
            Numismatiques, Bulletin 30/2, April–June 1993, 24–29. Van Heesch 
            proposed that a batch of Antioch coins had to be restruck because of 
            an engraving error on the obverse die, but the obverses of the coins 
            in question actually show no traces of overstriking, only the 
            reverses. The true explanation is probably an unpublished idea of 
            Colin Kraay’s, expressed verbally to Curtis Clay in the early 1970s: 
            it would appear that two reverse dies were being used alternately 
            and at rapid tempo with one and the same obverse die, and the 
            overstrikes occurred when a finished coin was erroneously left in 
            the obverse die and was struck again with the other reverse die. 
            Such overstruck reverses occur fairly frequently on Roman imperial 
            sestertii and middle bronzes, but only rarely on silver coins. 




      © 2005-2008 Gemini, LLC | Email: info@geminiauction.com

  ... Lot 478 sold for high bid of $350 [ $402.5, or approx 277.725 EUR, 205.275 GBP including the 15% buyers fee.] 

Gemini Auctions' results, text and images are re-used by the kind permission of:
    Freeman & Sear (www.freemanandsear.com)
 and Harlan J Berk (www.harlanjberk.com)