Gordion (BC 300-189) Obol

ca 3rd century-189 BC. AR Obol (10mm, 0.60g, 1h). Laureate and draped jugate busts of Apollo and Artemis to right, quiver over the shoulder of Artemis / ΓOPΔI-ANΩN, bow and quiver. Extremely rare and of great interest. Very fine.

When Alexander visited Gordion to unravel the famous Gordian Knot in 333 BC, the great ancient Phrygian capital had already lost most of its importance. The city's only known coinage consists of an extremely rare series of obols, which must date to before 189 BC, when the inhabitants fled the Romans under Gnaeus Manlius Vulso (Polyb. 21.37 and Livy 38.18.10-13). Gordion subsequently fell into decay and was only refounded, as a small Roman settlement, in the 1st century AD.