CNG 93, Lot: 804. Estimate $300. Sold for $240. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LYDIA, Philadelphia. Gaius (Caligula). AD 37-41. Æ (18mm, 4.54 g, 12h). Melanthos, priest of Germanicus. Bare head right; six-rayed star behind / Laureate and draped busts of the Dioscuri, jugate, right. RPC 3018; BMC 52; SNG von Aulock 3071. Good VF, brown patina. Very rare – only three cited in RPC, only one in CoinArchives (Lanz 150, lot 220). Perhaps the finest known.

From Group CEM.

RPC (p. 492) notes: “A very large number of ‘magistrates’ sign the coins (of Philadelphia) under Caligula: fifteen are certainly attested for his four-year reign. They give themselves various different descriptions and titles: priest of Germanicus, Olympic victor, philopatris, grammateus, and in a number of cases philokaisar. The impression created by this variety is that the persons are mentioned just as individuals rather than as holders of any specific magistracy; alternatively, one might think in terms of a board of some kind, as at Hierapolis.”