GORDIANUS III, RIC 81, Date 240 AD, Silver Denarius Rome, Emperor, Horse, Spear (3rd issue)

★ UNC, uncirculated condition - sharply strucked - lovely Gordianus III portrait - impressive fine detailed reverse Emperor on Horseback presentation - well centered - full legends at booth sides - beauty silver color toning ★
Marcus Antonius Gordianus III
Reign: Gordianus III
Mint: Rome, 3rd issue
Date: May/December 240 AD
Nominal: Denarius
Material: Silver
Diameter: 20mm
Weight: 2.66g
Reference: Cohen 234
Reference: RIC IV Gordian III 81
OCRE Online: numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.4...
Obverse: Bust of Gordian III, laureate, draped, cuirassed, right
Inscription: IMP GORDIANVS PIVS FEL AVG
Translation: Imperator Gordianus Pius Felix Augustus
Reverse: Gordian III, in military attire, with cloak flying behind, on horse prancing left, raising right hand and holding spear in left hand
Inscription: P M TR P III COS P P
Translation: Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate Tertia, Consul, Pater Patriae
Translation: High priest, holder of tribunician power for the third time, consul, father of the nation
Comment: Marcus Antonius Gordianus (born 20 January 225 AD; died 244 AD), also known as Gordian III, was Roman emperor from 238 to 244 AD. The names of his parents in the late antique Historia Augusta are fictitious. It is very likely that his mother Antonia Gordiana was a daughter of Gordian I and thus a sister of Gordian II. Probably in May 241 AD he married Furia Sabinia Tranquillina, daughter of his later praetorian prefect Gaius Furius Sabinus Aquila Timesitheus. Denarii with Diana Lucifera on the reverse were minted on the occasion of this marriage. The marriage remained childless. Gordian III probably died in February 244 AD. We have different versions in the sources about both the place and the exact circumstances of his death, so that it remains open whether he died in battle with the Persians or at the hands of his own soldiers. Possibly he was already on his way back outside Persian territory when he fell victim to a mutiny of the soldiers. It is often assumed that Philip Arabs, out of his own desire for power, at least worked to discredit Gordian III among the army, if not was directly responsible for his murder, but this is disputed. The Persian account, according to which Gordian fell during (or as a result of) the Battle of Mesiche, is considered by several scholars to be quite credible, especially since later Byzantine sources (such as John Zonaras), which could draw on older material, do not point to an assassination of the emperor either.
The Felix in this obverse legend refers to a notable event involving the Emperor's luck. In this case it likely referred to the repression of the uprising in Africa in early AD 240.