Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 739. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MOESIA INFERIOR, Nicopolis. Septimius Severus. 193-211 AD. Æ 27mm (11.43 gm). Aurelius Gallus, magistrate. AVT L CEPT CEVHP PER, laureate head right / UP AUP GALLOU NIKOPOLEITWN PROC ICTP, city gate, small temple seen through doorway, large colonnaded building above. AMNG I 1331; BMC Thrace pg. 42, 7; SNG Copenhagen -; Price & Trell 45 (fig. 26). Choice EF, dark green patina, light smoothing in fields. [See color enlargement on plate 11] ($2000)

A magnificent and complex piece of architectural design on a small scale. What appears at first glance to be a monumental city gate is in reality the juxtaposition of three different pieces of civic architecture. The imposing brick city gate with arched doorway is the centerpiece, and through the doorway can be seen in the far distance a tetrastyle temple. The superstructure is a third building, most likely a colonnaded stoa or marketplace with central pedimented hall flanked by two wings. This well preserved coin presents in startling clarity three aspects of the civic life of Nicopolis.