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Gordion (BC 300-189) Obol121 viewsca 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.
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Gordion (BC 300-189) Obol129 viewsca 2nd-1st century BC. AR Obol (0.70g, 9mm, 7h). Jugate busts of Artemis and Apollo, both laureate, quiver over the shoulder of Artemis / Bow and quiver, ΓOΡΔI-ANΩN vertically across fields. Extremely Fine. Of the highest rarity.
The only other example of this excessively rare coinage, the only known issue of Gordion, was published in the Numismatic Chronicle in 1846 by H. P. Borrell. Not a single other specimen has come to light in the intervening 172 years. It must not be confused with Gordus, or Gordus-Julia, under which entry it is incorrectly listed by the Bibliothèque nationale, who hold the Borrell specimen. After the death of Alexander in 323 BC, Gordion was controlled by Antigonos, the Seleukids, Celts, Attalids and finally by the Romans from 189 BC. The timing of this coin's issue is uncertain, but we may presume that it was struck during a brief period of autonomy, perhaps under Roman suzerainty.
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Gordion (BC 300-189) Obol91 viewsca 3rd century-189 BC. AR Obol (9mm, 0.65g, 6h). Laureate and draped jugate busts of Apollo and Artemis right, quiver over shoulder of Artemis / [Γ]OPΔI-ANΩN, bow and quiver. Extremely rare. Nicely toned, VF.
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