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Research Coins: Feature Auction

 
Sale: Triton V, Lot: 1741. Estimate $1500. 
Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 January 2002. 
Sold For $3750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHRYGIA, Synnada. Gallienus. 253-268 AD. Æ 33mm (15.21 gm). AUT KAI P LIK GALLHNOC, C-EB across field; laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / CUN-NA-DE-WN, hunt scene in the amphitheatre: centre, lion chasing stag; below, bestiarius attacking boar with spear; above, usarius and performing bear. SNG von Aulock 3997 = BMC Phrygia 66 = Casson-Price,Studies B.L. Trell, pg. 70, fig. 1 (same dies); SNG Lewis 1560 (same dies); J. Nolle, "Kaiserliche Privilegien für Gladiatorenmunera und Tierhetzen: Unbekannte und ungedeutete Zeugnisse auf städtischen Münzen des griechischen Ostens," JNG 42/43 (1992/1993), pg. 51, 2b = Sternberg XI, 322 (same dies); E.S.G. Robinson, "Coins from Lycia and Pamphylia," JHS 34 (1914), pg. 37, 24 (not plated). EF, black patina. Extremely rare, one of five known. ($1500)

See Sternberg Auktion XI (20-21 November 1981) for a comparable example (the current offering is perhaps slightly better centered) that sold for CHF 4100.

Synnada received extraordinarily abundant donations for the organization of its gladiatorial games and hunts of wild beasts, and therefore sometimes depicts gladiatorial munera on its coinage. The larger and more impressive these spectator events, the more they met with imperial approval, which, of course, improved the reputation of the city.