439, Lot: 308. Estimate $200. Sold for $425. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SELEUCIS and PIERIA, Antioch. Gordian III. AD 238-244. AR Tetradrachm (26mm, 12.65 g, 12h). Struck AD 238-240. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Eagle standing facing, head and tail left, with wreath in beak and wings spread; [S C in exergue]. Prieur 278A (this coin); McAlee859A (this coin cited and illustrated). Near VF, toned, minor porosity and a couple of deposits. Extremely rare, only one example known to Prieur, and none on CoinArchives.

From the Michel Prieur Collection.

Prieur notes that “This coin is certainly the very first issue of the Antioch mint in 240. The titulature of the emperor includes ЄYCЄB(eus), Pius in Greek, which disappears from later issues.” Additionally, Prieur describes the obverse portrait “with a long curl of hair going down from near the ear to the neck.” What Prieur sees as “a long curl” is just a long die break.