Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 761. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $1000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CILICIA, Anazarbus. Severus Alexander. 222-235 AD. Æ 33mm (25.16 gm). AVT KA M AVP CEO ALEXANDROC CE, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / ANAZAPBOV, facade of a monumental building with central arched gateway, flanked by two-story arcaded wings, the upper story with pyramidal structures (domes?) ornamented with acroteria. SNG Levante 1450; SNG France -; BMC Lycaonia -; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG von Aulock -; cf. Ziegler 641 (unlisted dies). VF, encrusted dark green patina. Rare architectural representation. ($500)

The description in Ziegler and Levante of this building as an aqueduct is clearly wrong. A similar piece was offered in Gorny & Mosch 121 (10 March 2003), lot 326 with a note presenting several more promising possibilities, the most likely being the monumental entrance to a area building such as an agora or forum. For a comparable architectural type see the Roman imperial dupondius of Nero with the Macellum facade (cf. RIC I 185 and Triton VI, lot 821)