ARTIC-EG
Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian) · other
Coin Portraying Emperor Gordian III
Description
The front (obverse) of this coin portrays Emperor Gordian III, facing right. The back (reverse) depicts a bust of Serapis (?). The date this coin was struck is indicated in the inscription " L-Z ", which means the seventh year of the emperor's reign, or 243-244 CE. Gordian III reigned as emperor from 238-244 CE.
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
Bimetallic-looking coin shown from both obverse and reverse views, depicting the head of a Roman emperor and a reverse figure resembling a laurel-crowned head/helmet or a symbolic bust, with surrounding letters.
The image displays two views of a small circular coin with worn surfaces. On the left (obverse), a right-facing bust of a Roman emperor is visible in profile within a beaded/raised border. Around the rim there appear to be stamped letters (Latin alphabet) but the full legend is not legible due to wear and resolution. On the right (reverse), a different head/bust or symbolic face (possibly curly-haired/serpentine or laureate) faces left, again within a beaded border; a few letters including an 'N' at the lower right are visible, but the surrounding inscription is too unclear to transcribe reliably. No Egyptian hieroglyphs, Coptic, or Arabic text is clearly readable. No clear cartouche is visible. The catalogued material is billon; the coin’s dark patina and metallic sheen are consistent with a copper-silver alloy, but exact alloy confirmation from the image alone is limited.
decorative
Roman Imperial period (3rd century CE)
good
Royals
Gordian III (catalogue attribution)
Materials
metal with dark patina (consistent with billon)
Signs
Latin letters/coin legend fragments ×5
Inscriptions (1)
Inscription #1
English description
Obverse: A K M ANT ΓOΡΔIANOC EV Reverse: L Z
Cross-references (1)
- ARTIC-id 133498 tier-2
Similar inscriptions · by content embedding
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.