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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 

Extremely Rare and Interesting Architectural Type

291, Lot: 202. Estimate $1000.
Sold for $2750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PAPHLAGONIA, Gangra-Germanicopolis. Caracalla. AD 198-217. Æ (27mm, 14.32 g, 6h). Laureate and cuirassed bust right / Cityscape: two secular buildings between two towers. A. Robertson, “A rare Greek Imperial coin of Gangra in Paphlagonia,” Studies Trell p. 77, fig. 1 = RG 60 = SNG Hunterian 2180 var. (rev. legend); cf. RG 61 = Price & Trell 259, fig. 517 (incomplete obv. legend, traces of “wall” visible between two left buildings). VF, glossy green patina. Extremely rare and highly interesting type.


Richmond (“The Town of Germanicopolis-Gangra in Paphlagonia” NC 1929, pp. 310-2) describes the central structures on the reverse as two distinct buildings, perhaps the city’s forum and basilica, with a narrow alley running between. Robertson, however, suggests that they may represent a single gatehouse, an idea initially dismissed by Richardson due to the uncharacteristically pitched roofs. The current specimen lacks what seems to be a curved wall seen on the latter two specimens referenced above, but exhibits an even more pronounced break between the central structures. They cannot form a gate, and must therefore represent two civic buildings, the smaller of which is shown in perspective. The type can thus be interpreted as a cross-section of the city; the two side towers represent two opposite entrances, with a circular wall around (on at least some specimens), and depicting in the center what must have been among the most important civic buildings. Unfortunately, nothing of Gangra survives today, and the identity of the buildings remains a mystery.