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Extremely Rare Severan Issue from Metropolis

863490. Sold For $1250

IONIA, Metropolis. Septimius Severus. AD 193-211. Æ 35mm (27.70 g, 6h). Kales- Thallos, strategos. AY · K · Λ · CЄ · CЄOYHPOC [· Π ·], laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind / ЄΠI CTP KAΛ [ЄC ·] Ө AΛΛOY, statue of Ares facing left within tetrastyle temple, with spear and shield set on ground; MHTPOΠOΛ/ЄITΩN in exergue. Kraft pl. 76, 16d (same obv. die); SNG Copenhagen -; SNG München -; SNG von Aulock -; SNG Tübingen -; BMC -. VF, brown patina, light smoothing in fields. Extremely rare; only one other specimen recorded, and in much lower condition.


Ex Cornelius C. Vermeule III Collection; Classical Numismatic Group 53 (15 March 2000), lot 1086.

Although being known with Ares facing right, the type with Ares facing left along with a reverse legend mentioning the strategos is indeed rare, with the example in Kraft being the only other one known. Kraft cites a coin in the Waddington collection (6332---as Metropolis in Phrygia), which has a similar reverse reading of ЄΠI CTP KAΛ ӨAΛΛOY (misread as KΛA), though the type features Septimius Severus standing between his two sons, Caracalla and Geta. The other example cited by Kraft is the coin in the Copenhagen collection (910), which features the aforementioned statue of Ares facing right, with the legend TΩN ЄN IΩNIA. Although rare as a reverse type, this obverse die was also used to strike coins for Smyrna, Hypaepa and Magnesia (see Kraft pp. 176-7 and pl. 76)