Sale: CNG 60, Lot: 1206. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 May 2002.  Sold For $400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACE, Deultum. Gordian III. 238-244 AD. Æ 22mm (5.84 gm). Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind / Perseus standing left, holding a harpa and Medusa's head with his left hand, using his right hand to help Andromeda down off some rocks; dead sea monster at feet. Youroukova -, but cf. 445 for the same reverse on a coin of Philip I. Near VF, green patina. Interesting mythological type // Lot also includes another coin of Gordian III from Deultum, an Æ 17mm with bust left, holding spear and shield on the obverse and a dolphin on the reverse. Youroukova 311. VF, brown patina. Two (2) coins in lot. ($300)

From the David Simpson Collection.

The reverse of the first coin depicts a scene from the myth of Perseus where he rescues the daughter of King Cepheus in return for her hand in marriage. Cepheus' queen Cassiopeia boasted that she was more beautiful than the Nereids and as a punishment, Poseidon flooded the kingdom and sent a sea-monster to "ravage" the land. King Cepheus consulted the oracle of Zeus-Ammon and was told that he would have to sacrifice his daughter Andromeda to the monster to appease it. Andromeda was chained to a cliff and it was at this point that Perseus, returning from slaying Medusa, flew by on Pegasus and immediately fell in love with Andromeda. He arranged with Cepheus to kill the sea-monster if he could marry Andromeda. The coin type depicts Perseus helping Andromeda down from the cliff-face after he has killed the monster and released her.

Although the reverse of this coin is published in Youroukova for Philip I, the type is unknown for Gordian III. Mionnet (Suppl. II, 574) describes a coin of Gordian's wife, Tranquillina, with this same reverse but mis-identifies the figures as Dionysos with a maenad (see CNG 39, lot 918; interestingly, the reverse die for this coin is identical to that used to strike the coin of Philip I plated in Youroukova).