Interesting Caracalla provincial..

[featherz]

Picture is lousy, but I don't have the coin in hand - still working on the attribution, but is that a weightlifter on reverse?

[curtislclay]

Heather,
      It is Cilicia, Tarsus, Caracalla wearing wreath and robes of the demiourgos, the local priestly office that he assumed when passing through Cilicia in 214 or 215.  
       The obv. die is well known, e.g. SNG Levante 1057-9.  SNG Lev. 1058 also has an extract of your rev. type, namely the emperor togate sacrificing over altar.  
      Your coin adds the temple before which he is sacrificing, plus a victimarius swinging an ax (not a weightlifter!) to slay a sacrificial bull.  
       This expanded type must be rare, since it is not in SNG Levante, SNG Paris, SNG Aulock, SNG Righetti, or Ziegler's Cilician Coins in Smaller German Collections.
       I like provincial coins like this that make an important contribution to our knowledge of Roman imperial history! Only the coins prove that Caracalla became demiourgos at Tarsus and that he must have visited the city on his way to his Parthian campaign in 214-5.
Yours,
Curtis

[featherz]

Thank you curtis! I knew it was Tarsos, but that's about it. Now that you mention it, I suppose I can go with the slaying of the bull, although I liked my weightlifter theory better  . Seriously though, thank you for checking. I checked my few references and those on the web and have not found it yet, although I did find the similar type you mentioned (sacrificing over altar).

I hadn't seen this exact type before!

[Automan]

I once owned this piece, which might be the emperor sacrificing over altar referred to above:

Auto

[featherz]

Here's the pic of the actual coin, which arrived today.

[slokind]

Here's another victimarius coin.  Mine (another scan in Wildwinds) is Septimius, but it also exists for Geta and, I suppose, maybe for Caracalla.
Pat Lawrence
31 08 01 AE 29 (16.80g)  Thrace, Philippopolis.  Septimius Severus, laureate, bust to r.  Of his name, SEV clearly remains between 1:30 and 2:30.  Rev.,  on either side of a statue on a column, to the r. of which is a tripod altar, victimarius bringing bull for sacrifice to r. and the emperor pouring libation, facing l.  For the legend, part of the ethnic remains at right and traces of its continuation (presumably--there is a pi) in the exergue.  The ghost of a beautiful pair of dies.  The statue is clearer than appears in the scan.