Crazy price for campgate

[tjaart]

Hi,

This campgate just hammered for CHF4600 in the latest Leu auction! I thought that my max bid of CHF900 would have been enough... But alas, in these crazy times, who knows what prices these coins will fetch.

[Victor]

I was just getting ready to post this. My bid was also blown out of the water. Leu prices are often crazy, they are the most over-rated auction house.

[Heliodromus]

It does seem a tad excessive, but I suppose if you gotta have it, you gotta have it ...

I was planning a few Leu bids, but checked prices before I went to bed last night and decided against it!

This campgate reverse is interesting in that these fancy fluted columns strongly suggest a city gate rather than an army camp gate. There are known surviving city gates, such as the one from Jerash, that do have this type of architectutral detail. I've written a bit about this before on FORVM.

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=125014

This is the only reverse die for the Rome P-R campgate series that has these columns. It's also known from a few museum specimens (ANS, BM, Vienna), and I also saw one sold on eBay back in 2006. Other than the Vienna specimen, these are all paired with this same D6 obverse die. The Vienna one has a D7 bust.

[Nikko]

Probably one of the most expensive Constantine's bronze coin ever sold.

[tjaart]

Thanks for the extra info, Heliodromus. I agree, something you just gotta have it... This time my budget was not nearly enough

[KostasAlexander]

I was lucky enough to acquire one of these from a very good friend who was thinning out his LRB collection a while back. When I saw the Leu one come to auction I was very excited to see that there was another out there (Thank you Ben for letting me know about the museum examples - I just saw the British and Vienna museums examples on their websites - very cool!)

One thing I always wondered about was the "hangman" looking stick figure above the entry way. It is a little easier to see on this example because of the contrast between the dirt and the exposed coin. Do you think that this is just an architectural feature or something a little more sinister like a person hanging from the walls?

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[Heliodromus]

Ah - so we're still at five known that I'm aware of ... your coin is the one that sold on eBay in September 2006 (buy-it-now $150). Here's the sale photo:

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The ANS specimen is here:

http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.7.rom.185

I think that little "hangman" is really a combination of three things:

- his head is a centering dot
- his arms are part of the brick/stone work design
- his legs are an architectural detail associated with the door

Some of the doors on these can be quite elaborate; I'd have to look to see if I can find another with this sort of minimally hinted arch over the door.

[Victor]

a rough example I had