341, Lot: 79. Estimate $100. Sold for $60. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SYRIA, Coele-Syria. Damascus. Gallienus. AD 253-268. Æ (21mm, 8.48 g, 2h). Laureate and cuirassed bust left, raising right hand / Agonistic urn set on three-legged table. De Saulcy 5; Rosenberger –; BMC –; SNG München –; SNG Hunterian –; SNG Copenhagen –; CNG E-261, lot 170 (same dies). Fine, earthen brown patina. Very rare with bust to left and retrograde obverse legend.

From the J.S. Wagner Collection.

The coin known to De Saulcy was in too poor of condition to even attempt to interpret the obverse legend. Based on the specimen sold in esale 261, as well as close examination of this and another example in the Wagner Collection, this cataloger tentatively reconstructs it as “IMP CΛЄ P LIC GVLLIENVS VΛG.” The legends for this period are typically crude and prone to error, often combining Greek and Latin (thus, the common ethnic “COL ΔAMAS METRO”).