Triton XVII, Lot: 751. Estimate $500. Sold for $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Caracalla. AD 198-217. Æ (26mm, 12.19 g, 7h). Nicopolis ad Istrum mint; Aurelius Gallus, legatus consularis. Struck AD 201-203. AV • K • M • AVP ANTΩNIN, laureate bust right, slight drapery / VΠA • AVP ΓAΛΛOV N IKOΠOΛЄITΩN/ ΠPOC ICTP[O], Hermes standing left, with chlamys draped over left arm, holding purse in outstretched right hand, caduceus in left; to left, ram standing right. H&J, Nikopolis –; AMNG –; Varbanov –; SNG Evelpidis –; Moushmov –. Good VF, attractive green patina, a few light marks. Unpublished in the standard references with ram.

A seemingly unpublished issue with a ram accompanying Hermes rather than a rooster. Both animals were associated with the god; the latter relating to Hermes’ role as messenger, as the rooster announces each new day; the former playing a prominent role in both the myths of Hermes saving Phrixus and Helle by sending a golden ram to rescue the twins before they were sacrificed, and the god’s role in the saving of Tanagra from plague by encircling the city walls while carrying a ram. Images of Hermes Kriophoros (“the ram-bearer”) were common in antiquity and greatly influenced the iconography of Christ the Good Shepherd.