https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/countermark/128 

GIC 12

Helios (?), radiate head r. or l.

circular 

5 mm 

Caesarea (Cappadocia)

For the identification of the radiate deity see Sydenham, Caesarea p.18 (possibly the Genius Argaei is intended). No coins of the seventh year of Gordian III, the last year in which Caesarea struck, have yet been found countermarked. It may well be that the countermarking took place in 243/4, before coins of the seventh year entered circulation. Comparison with the Giilek Bogazi hoard tends to confirm this (NNM 78, 58 5; B. Marthaler, Two Studies in the Greek Imperial Coinage of Asia Minor, University of Minnesota, Ph. D.,1968, pp.2 1-32; for the comparison see above, pp.96-8). The hoard included coins of 244 and the coins of Gordian III showed signs of use. Despite the fact that the hoard is to be dated some years after 244, the coins of Gordian JI! were less well represented in the hoard than among the countermarked coins. The probable reason for this is that when the countermarks were applied the coins of Gordian III had just been struck, and hence formed a greater proportion of the coins in circulation than was warranted by the size of the issue relative to earlier issues. That the countermarking took place in 24 3/4 is supported by the presence of 12 coins of 24 3 among the countermarked coins, despite the small output of that year (none were found in the Giilek Bogazi hoard). The countermarks may have been contemporary with those on the silver (GIC 849) and thus part of a regulation of the currency of both metals in the city. The punches of the countermark were worked to death and a large number of coins (c.99) have been omitted from the total given above because the countermark is illegible. It is probable that the 'foreign' coins were countermarked by mistake.