Owner Comments:
GORDIANUS III. 238-244, Aureus of late-end 239. IMP CAES M ANT GORDIANVS AVG Laurel, draped and armored bust r. Rs: P M TR P II COS P P Virtus stands l. with shield and spear. C. 193. R.I.C. 25. Calico 3212a. 5.28g, nicely centered. Rare.
Ex Vicomte de Sartiges (1859-1924) Collection. Ex Ars Classica 18, October 10 1938, at Hotel Schweizerhof in Lucerne, Switzerland, Lot No. 395, cataloged by Jacob Hirsch, the same guy who presided over the 1908 auction of our Roman 60 asses coin of the Second Punic War. This 1938 sale was called "Very important collection of Roman coins formed by a long-deceased foreign diplomat, whose sale will take place at public auctions". The catalog has been scanned and is available at https://archive.org/details/MonnaiesRomainesXVIII , showing this coin as "Superbe" and hammering at 125 Swiss Francs (just over $25 at the time, in the midst of the Great Depression). At this same auction was sold a giant rare gold 20 gram medallian of Honorius, which sold for 10,500 Francs, and is referred to in correspondence from American historian and art connoisseur Royall Tyler to American Diplomat Robert Woods Bliss, September 27, 1938, now part of the Dumbarton Oaks archive, at: https://www.doaks.org/resources/bliss-tyler-correspondence/letters/27sep1938 . The same letter refers to the author taking some comfort in a letter of the same day from President Roosevelt to Adolf Hitler regarding the threat of war in Europe, on account of Hitler's threats to invade the Sudentenland of Czechoslovakia.
This coin later was also ex Magnaguti Collection (Santamaria 23/10/1951 Lot No. 264). Ex collection B.d.B. (NAC 49, 2008, lot no.348).
After the end of the Gordianii, the Senate elected Pupienus and Balbinus as emperors against Maximinus Thrax and provided them with the grandson of Gordianus I as Caesar. After a good three months, the two emperors were murdered by the Praetorians and the 13-year-old Gordianus III was proclaimed Augustus. In contrast to his older predecessors, he was able to hold the imperial throne for about 6 years. On a campaign against the Sassanids, he died of a wound or from a conspiracy by his Praetorian prefect and successor, Philip the Arab.