306, Lot: 253. Estimate $150. Sold for $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CARIA, Stratonicaea. Caracalla, with Plautilla. AD 198-217. Æ (36mm, 26.36 g, 6h). Struck circa AD 202–203. [AV KAI M AVP A]И KAI ΘЄ CЄB ИЄ [ΠΛAUTIΛΛA], confronted busts of Caracalla right, laureate and draped, and Plautilla left, draped and wearing stephane; c/m: laureate and draped bust right within oval incuse / Zeus Panamaros on horseback right; altar to right. SNG von Aulock – (but cf. 2694 for same obv. die); SNG Copenhagen 509 (same dies); for c/m: Howgego 84. Near VF, brown surfaces.

Large bronze issues of the Carian cities of Alinda, Alabanda, and Stratonicea proclaim Plautilla to be a “new goddess” after her marriage to Caracalla, sometimes overtly referring to her as Hera. As Ken Harl notes (Civic Coins and Civic Politics in the Roman East: A.D. 180-275 [Berkeley, CA: University of California Press], p. 41): “By implication, Caracalla was envisioned as a youthful Zeus, so that the imperial marriage became a symbolic reenactment of the celestial one.”

Nearly all of the reverse legend on the Copenhagen piece is illegible. The portion of the reverse legend on the current coin does not permit a precise assignment to any of the known magistrates whose names appear on the series.