My dealer had a pile of ancients he received in a recent purchace. He bade me to look through the pile, and I told him I had no real knowledge of ancients but would like to cherry pick a piece. He let me have it for $20, neither of us knowing what it was. It appears to me to be a Silver Antoninianus of Gordian III of the Roman Empire 238-244 AD born 225 AD. The obverse reads IMP GORDIANVS PIVS FEL AVG. short for imperator gordianus pius felix augustus, which means Commander in Chief Gordinius, dutiful, lucky, magnificent. The reverse reads Romae Aeternae which simply means In Rome Eternal. Apollo or Roma sits to the left holding a scepter. The reverse is slightly off center, but I don't think it was a bad purchase for $20. If you can shed any additional light on the coin or know of its approximate value please let me know.
Not a bad purchase at all! With that kind of obverse, it would have fished in at least another $10. Nice pickup :kewl: stainless
Not too bad! Although, I would translate the obverse legend as The Pious, Lucky Emperor Gordian Augustus.
Here's mine: Gordian III AR Antoninianus - Hercules Radiate draped bust right IMP GORDIANVS PIVS FEL AVG Hercules standing right leaning on club set on rock VIRTVTI AVGVSTI Catalog: RIC 95 (Roman Imperial Coins) Full name: Marcus Antonius Gordianus Pius Life span: AD 225-244 "bqcoins" coin could be "ROMAE AETERNAE", RIC 55 Unfortunately, parts of the Roman coin WildWinds internet database are out of service. http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cach...+"gordian+Iii"+coins&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/gordian_III/RIC_0055.3.jpg :kewl:
