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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 2377219, member: 42773&quot;]The Serdica mint issued a variety of large bronzes for Caracalla that have an almost medallic quality to them. They are quite large (this one at 31mm, 16g), quite round, engraved with the highest artistry, and struck very solidly. It would appear that the Apollo reverses are rare - Varbonov rates this coin an R5, estimating 100-200 known.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]486855[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>This coin is a die match to the Varbanov plate coin...</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]486856[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I haven&#039;t discovered another example of this type on the web, although <a href="https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=38893#" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=38893#" rel="nofollow">CNG 70 Lot 3</a> comes close. However, it&#039;s clear that Apollo is holding a different sort of branch altogether on that coin, and it should be considered a different type. (The CNG attribution is incorrect.)</p><p><br /></p><p>I liked this coin, not only for its rarity and style, but the surfaces don&#039;t look like they&#039;ve been altered. They&#039;re just slightly rough enough to appear original. Of the few of these various types that can be found, some have been smoothed. CNG even says so - <a href="https://www.cngcoins.com/Search.aspx?IS_ADVANCED=1&amp;ITEM_IS_SOLD=1&amp;ITEM_INVENTORY_NUMBER=&amp;CONTAINER_NAME=&amp;ITEM_LOT_NUMBER=&amp;ITEM_DESC=caracalla+serdica+apollo&amp;SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_1=1&amp;SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_3=1&amp;SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_2=1&amp;SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_4=1&amp;VIEW_TYPE=0" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cngcoins.com/Search.aspx?IS_ADVANCED=1&amp;ITEM_IS_SOLD=1&amp;ITEM_INVENTORY_NUMBER=&amp;CONTAINER_NAME=&amp;ITEM_LOT_NUMBER=&amp;ITEM_DESC=caracalla+serdica+apollo&amp;SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_1=1&amp;SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_3=1&amp;SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_2=1&amp;SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_4=1&amp;VIEW_TYPE=0" rel="nofollow">see a page here.</a></p><p><br /></p><p>At any rate, I won this coin at an auction wherein the bidders were mostly preoccupied with common Greek silver (beautiful to be sure, but common). So I was pleasantly surprised to have no competition.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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