Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 636. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $440. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

[Roman Provincial] PHRYGIA, Hierapolis. Elagabalus. 218-222 AD. Æ 36mm (17.60 g, 6h). Homonoia with Tripolis in Lydia. [A] VT KAI M AVP ANT[WNEINOC CE]B. laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right; 3 c/ms: A in wreath, V in circle, figure standing left, holding sceptre, in oval / IERA[POL]EIT WN NEWK[OR]WN OMO NOIA, in exergue K TRIPOLEI TWN, the two Tychiae, each holding a sceptre and clasping hands, standing vis-à-vis. Coin unpublished, but for c/ms: the first, Howgego 667, the second, Howgego 814, and the third is unpublished. Fine, brown patina, flan crack. ($300)

There are no recorded homonoia issues linking Hierapolis and Tripolis, although both cities have joint coinages with other urban centers. Howgego assigns the A in wreath countermark to Aphrodisias in Caria in the mid-third century AD, adopted from a coin type of Herennia Etruscilla (see MacDonald, Aphrodisias p. 48, c/m 15 and type 204). While Howgego 811 is the same Greek letter, Howgego's stylistic criteria for this type are fairly rigid, and the countermark on this coin is significantly different. In contrast, Howgego 814 was applied to coins of Tripolis, and is stylistically identical to the countermark on this coin. The meaning of this countermark, though, is uncertain. The third countermark does not appear in Howgego's corpus, although it is similar to no. 278, a figure standing right - probably the god Mên - that was applied to coins of Hierapolis.