Sale: Nomos 6, Lot: 174. Estimate CHF5500.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 May 2012.  Sold For CHF7500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Perinthos, Thrace. Caracalla. 198-217. Oktassarion (Bronze, 38mm, 44.86 g 1), c. 215-217. ΑΥΤ Κ Μ ΑΥΡ CΕΟΥΗΡ ΑΝΤΩΝΙΝΟC ΑΥΓ Laureate and cuirassed bust of Caracalla to right, bearded, with aegis on his chest, and holding a spear over his shoulder with his right hand. Rev. ΠΕΡΙΝΘΙΩΝ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ On the left, Caracalla, in military dress, standing right, holding a long scepter in his right hand and, with his left, holding the Apples of the Hesperides, which are being given to him from the right hand of Herakles, who stands to left on the right, nude and holding his club in his left hand; between them, below their clasped hands, round garlanded altar. Schönert, Perinthos, 609 (same dies). Rare. A most impressive coin, with a noble portrait of the emperor and a fine, green patina. Good very fine.

From the M Collection, ex Gorny & Mosch 141, 10 October 2005, 200.

Herakles was honored as the founder of Perinthos, and many of his labors appear on the city’s coinage. Here Herakles is shown honoring Caracalla by giving him some of the golden apples he stole from the Hesperides in his eleventh labor.