Watch List notes:

MYSIA. Germe. Elagabalus, 218-222. Medallion (Orichalcum, 43 mm, 40.93 g, 7 h), T. Ioulios Fontinios Alexandros, strategos. ΑΥΤΟΚΡ Κ•Μ ΑΥΡ ΑΝΤΩΝЄΙΝΟϹ ϹЄΒ Laureate and cuirassed bust of Elagabalus to right, breastplate decorated with gorgoneion. Rev. ЄΠΙ ϹΤΡ Τ•ΙΟΥΛ•ΦΟΝΤΙΛΙΟΥ / ΑΛЄΞΑΝΔ/ΡΟΥ // ΓЄΡΜΗΝ/ΩΝ Herakles standing front, head to right, holding club in his right hand and the slain Nemean lion by the right hind leg in his left. Ehling 175 (V1/R1). RPC VI online 3828. SNG Paris 992 (same dies). Extremely rare. The fourth known example, and far superior to the Mabbott and Paris coins (the example in Lanz 165, 9 December 2017, 271, was extensively reengraved). The obverse a bit weak, otherwise, good very fine.


The reverse of this impressive medallion shows us Herakles holding the slain Nemean lion by the right hind leg, a radical modification of the usual imagery of Herkakles wrestling and strangling the beast as we know it from so many Roman Provincial issues.