200, Lot: 353. Estimate $100. Sold for $295. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

AXUM. GAD. Circa 610-630. AR Unit (14mm, 0.66 g, 12h). Draped facing bust, wearing gilded crown; GAD monogram to left / Arch supported by two capitals over gilded cross. Cf. Hahn, Aksumite 69.1; Munro-Hay type 126; BMC Axum 440. Near VF, some porosity and roughness.

From the Norman Frank Collection. Ex CNG 53 (15 March 2000), lot 1009.

While the cross had been a standard feature on Axumite coinage for over two centuries, GAD made efforts to further aggrandize it. Here, the cross is completely gilded and framed by an elaborate arch, with a Ge‘ez legend around the design reading “The King who exalts the Savior”. This change may have been prompted by either the capture of the Holy Cross by the Persians in 614, or its recovery in 630.