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Tranquillina. Silver Denarius (3.0 g), Augusta, AD 241-244. Rome, under Gordian III. SABINIA TRANQVILLINA AVG, diademed and draped bust right. Reverse CONCORDIA AVGG, Concordia seated left, holding patera and double cornucopiae. RIC 252; RSC 1a. Virtually as struck, nicely toned. Extremely rare and probably the finest of very few specimens known. Nearly Mint State.
Tranquillina, the daughter of the Praetorian Prefect Timesitheus, married Gordian III in AD 241. The couple had no children, and while it is assumed that she survived her husband, her fate after his death is not known. All of Tranquillina's imperial coinage is, inexplicably, extremely rare.
Estimated Value $15,000 - 18,000.
Ex The Barry Feirstein Collection (NAC, 16 May, 2007), 153; earlier privately purchased from Harlan J. Berk.
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Didia Clara. Silver Denarius (2.35 g), Augusta, AD 193. Rome, under Didius Julianus. DIDIA CLA-RA AVG, draped bust of Didia Clara right. Reverse HILAR T-EMPOR, Hilaritas standing facing, head left, holding long palm and cornucopiae. RIC 10; BMC 14; RSC 3. Boldly struck and well centered with an incredibly sharp portrait of Didia Clara. Extremely rare and one of the finest known!. Extremely Fine.
Other than the fact that Didia Clara, the daughter of Didius Julianus and Manlia Scantilla, was a remarkable beauty and an only child, very little is known about either her life or her personality. On her father's accession, she was granted the title of Augusta, and we also know that she married Sextus Cornelius Repentinus, a career politician who became prefect of Rome during her father's short reign. However, her subsequent fate as well as the fate of her husband after her father was overthrown by Septimius Severus is unknown.
Estimated Value $5,000 - 6,000.
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Trajan. Silver Denarius (3.31 g), AD 98-117. Rome, ca. AD 113/4. IM[P TR]AIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS VI P P, laureate and draped bust of Trajan right. Reverse S P Q R OPTI-MO PRINCIPI, Trajan's Column: tall column with diagonal bands representing friezes surmounted by statue of Trajan holding patera and long scepter; base with entrance and two eagles, one on either side of column. RIC 292; Woytek 425a; BMC 452; RSC 558. Well struck and well centered. Luster still present and delicately toned. An exceptional example of this popular and scarce type. Nearly Mint State.
Trajan's column, completed during his sixth consulate about eight years after his final conquests over the Dacian's under their king Decebalus in AD 106, was an inspiring monument located in Trajan's forum in Rome. A flank of the Quirinal Hill had to be excavated to a height of 120 feet to make room for the forum, and it appears that originally the column was simply a marker of the depth of excavation that was required, the notable frieze being a mere afterthought.
The column itself consists of seventeen marble drums, each over four feet tall, overlaid with a frieze approximately three feet wide and 656 feet long spiraling diagonally twenty-three times around the shaft from its base to its summit. The action of the frieze, which is continuous and is divided by conventional uprights such as a tree, a wall or a standing figure, shows 165 episodes of the campaign, and includes more than 2500 human figures. It chronicles Trajan's campaigns in Dacia, and is divided in half, the first representing the First Dacian War of AD 101-102, the latter the Second Dacian War of AD 105-106. Surmounting the whole structure was a statue of the emperor, which disappeared during the Middle Ages but which was replaced in 1587 by Pope Sixtus V with a bronze statue of St. Peter. In addition to providing entrance to the column, which contains an internal helical stairway to its summit, the base served as sepulcher housing the remains of Trajan and his wife, Plotina.
Estimated Value $3,000 - 3,500.
Ex NAC 40 (16 May 2007), 699.
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Maximinus I 'Thrax'. Silver Denarius (3.0 g), AD 235-238. Rome, AD 235/6. IMP MAXIMINVS PIVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Maximinus I right. Reverse VICTO-R-I-A AVG, Victory advancing right, holding wreath and palm. RIC 16; BMC 25-6; RSC 99. Boldly struck on both sides and perfectly centered, attractively toned. Nearly Mint State.
Estimated Value $250 - 300.
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Titus. Silver Denarius (3.22 g), as Caesar, AD 69-79. Rome, AD 79. T CAESAR IMP VESPASIANVS, laureate head of Titus right sporting slight beard. Reverse TR POT VIII COS VII, slow quadriga left, drawing garlanded cart containing flower. RIC 1073; BMC 256-7; RSC 336. Rare. Last issue as Caesar. Boldly struck in high relief and well centered. Lovely old cabinet toning. Superb Extremely Fine.
This coin was struck shortly before Vespasian's death, in the period from January to June AD 79, and is from the last issue of Titus, as Caesar.
Estimated Value $3,000 - 3,500.
Ex Triton XII (6-7 January 2009), 579.
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Elagabalus. Silver Denarius (3.1 g), AD 218-222. Rome, AD 221/2. IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG, laureate and draped bust of Elagabalus right, with 'horn' above forehead. Reverse SVMMVS SACERDOS AVG, emperor standing facing, head left, sacrificing from patera over altar and holding branch; in left field, star. RIC 146; BMC 232-3; RSC 276. Well struck on both sides, lightly toned. Superb Extremely Fine.
The reverse presents Elagabalus as high priest of the Emesan sun god, El-Gabal, an office he had inherited (or perhaps purchased) through the machinations of his grandmother, Julia Maesa. Elagabalus brought the cult with him to Rome, but due to his religious fanatacism for the Emesan cult and his otherwise perverse eccentricities, he so offended the Roman populace that the Praetorians mutinied and murdered both the emperor and his mother, tossing their mutilated corpses into the Tiber to be washed out to sea.
Estimated Value $200 - 250.
Ex Goldberg 72 (5 February 2013), 4519 (part).
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Carausius. Silver Denarius (3.98 g), Romano-British Emperor, AD 287-293. London, ca. AD 287. IMP I CARAVSIVS P F AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Carausius right. Reverse RENOVAT ROMANO, she-wolf standing right, suckling the twins Romulus and Remus; RSR (Rs retrograde). Cf. RIC 571; cf. Shiel 68; cf. RSC 82. Very Rare. Toned. Extremely Fine.
Carausius was the commander of the Roman fleet stationed in the English Channel who usurped power, gaining control over Britain and of part of Gaul. While the vast majority of his coin types were debased antoniniani as circulated in the official Empire, he also struck aurei and silver denarii of very high purity, the likes of which had not been seen for many years. The legends and types of his denarii, as is the case with the the coin offered here showing the she-wolf and twins motif combined with the legend RENOVAT ROMANO, evoked traditional Roman virtues. This of course is highly interesting coming from a province at the edge of the Roman world, but it clearly espouses Carausius' ideology that he was in fact restoring Rome and not simply another military opportunist as had beset the Roman Empire for the past half century.
Of more novel interest is the abbreviation RSR in the exergue. This had always been assumed to be a mintmark, the precise meaning never satisfactorily resolved. However, it turns out that it is not actually a mintmark at all! Guy de la Bédoyère, "Carausius, RSR and I.N.P.C.D.A," NC 1998, pp. 79-88, shows a Virgilian connection, the RSR being an abbreviation for Redeunt Saturnia regna, and INPCDA found on other Carausian coins the abbreviation for Iam nova progenies, cælo Demittitur alto. These phrases come from the sixth and seventh lines of Virgil's Fourth Eclogue on the Golden Age, and translate "now Virgin Justice returns, and Saturn's reign: now a new race descends from the heavens above." Any educated person in the Roman world would have recognized the abbreviation; thus it played perfectly into Carausius's clearly-defined ideology of restoring the virtues of Rome.
Estimated Value $4,000 - 5,000.
Ex Helios 4 (14 October 2009), 694; A. Lynn Collection; CNG 54 (14 June 2000), 1792.
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Clodius Macer. Silver Denarius (3.62 g), Governor of Africa, AD 68. Carthage. L CLODI-VS MACER, S C below bust, bare head of Clodius Macer right. Reverse PRO/PRAE in two lines above, AFRICAE below, war galley with aplustre and five oarsmen sailing right. RIC 37; K. V. Hewitt, NC 1983, 55 (dies 31/37) = L. Mildenberg, Vestigia Leonis p. 362, pl. LI, 1 (this coin); A. Gara, RIN 1970, p. 67, 7, and pl. 1, 11/12; BMC 1; RSC 13. An excellent portrait unusually well-centered, complete and of excellent metal. Attractive old cabinet toning further adds to its appeal. Exceedingly rare and probably the finest specimen known. Superb Extremely Fine.
L. Clodius Macer was the propraetorian legate of the Legio III Augusta based in Numidia during the latter part of Nero's reign. Historically, he was thought to have rebelled against Nero in the name of the Senate of Rome, but recent study into the language employed by Tacitus in his history of the period throws a shadow over this interpretation. It seems instead that perhaps Macer was first a loyal partisan of Nero, and only when overtaken by the events of Nero's suicide did he find himself in opposition to Galba. In this view, Nero sent his influential mistress, Calvia Crispinilla, to Africa to assure Macer's loyalty to the throne after Galba had publicly declared his support for Vindex's uprising, and that it was only after Galba came to power that Macer began to act in a more arbitrary manner, using his naval forces in an attempted investment of Sicily to blockade Rome and cut off her grain supply (see G. Morgan, "Clodius Macer and Calvia Crispinilla," Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 49, 4 [4th Quarter, 2000]: pp. 467-87).
Supporting this interpretation of events is the evidence from Macer's coinage. While it has often been suggested that Macer was attempting to either reestablish the Roman Republic, or alternately that he aspired to the throne himself, these arguments do not hold up upon closer scrutiny. The first argument is based on the fact that Macer was even striking precious metal coinage, a purely imperial prerogative for the past century, and that for designs he chose types prevalent during the imperatorial period. Countering this is that both Galba and perhaps also Vindex preempted him, striking anonymous issues themselves, and Macer's choice of types merely provided the consumer the comfort of the conventional since earlier denarii of course still circulated widely in Africa in the AD 60s. The second argument is based in part on the fact that Macer put his name on his coins, and that on one issue - probably his last - he even included his own portrait. Although it is true that Macer's denarii are not anonymous, with notable modesty they all clearly give his title as mere procurator of a legion in Africa. There is also ample precedent for using his own portrait, which notably is not laureate. Additionally, although it seems highly improbable that the Senate ever empowered Macer to strike coinage, all of his coins without exception claim to be operating S C. This and his modest title are compelling enough reasons to see that Macer had no delusional grandeur of aspiring to the purple, and should instead be seen as putting the best face on his own actions while at the same time reassuring the people that his money was sound.
After Macer's capture and execution by order of Galba, it would seem that his coins were immediately recalled and melted, the bullion of which was used for a short time at the Carthaginian mint to strike coins all with a comparably provincial style for Galba. Hewitt records 77 known dies for Macer's coinage and extrapolates that there may have been more than 180 in total, so it was apparently substantial. However, very specimens survive today - fewer than 85 coins of all types, with at most just twenty being portrait denarii - making this coin one of the rarest in the entire history of Roman Imperial coinage.
Estimated Value $50,000-UP.
Ex Barry Feirstein Collection (NAC 39, 16 May 2007), 107; James Fox Collection (CNG/NAC 40, 4 December 1996), 1402; Highly Important Greek and Roman Coins. The Nelson Bunker Hunt Collection, pt. I (Sotheby's, 19 June 1990), 126; Sternberg III (29-30 November 1974), 47; Tunis Hoard.
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Pescennius Niger. Silver Denarius (3.23 g), AD 193-194. Antioch. IMP CAES C PESCEN NIGER IVST AVG, laureate head of Pescennius Niger right. Reverse BONA-E SPEI, Spes advancing left, holding flower and raising hem of skirt. Cf. RIC 3c (obv. legend ends AV); cf. BMC 298 (same); cf. RSC 8 (same). Boldly struck with an incredible portrait of Pescennius, all with lovely old cabinet toning. Very rare and a candidate for finest known!. Superb Extremely Fine.
From the scarcity of it today it would seem that Pescennius Niger's coinage was originally very limited. However, the enormous number of minor varieties - such as the remarkably well struck example offered here - shows that this is in fact not the case, and that output must have been monumental. No catalogue of his coinage is without numerous lacunae. The mints involved were, of course, in the East, Niger's primary imperial mint based at Antioch where he held court, and probably a subsidiary mint based at Caesarea in Cappadocia. After three successive defeats at the hands of his rival, Septimius Severus, Niger was finally captured and executed along with his entire family in AD 194. It appears that Severus then ordered the recall of Niger's coinage, and his instructions were meticulously followed.
Estimated Value $10,000 - 12,000.
Ex Imagines Imperatorvm Sale (Aureo & Calicó, 8 February 2012), 138.
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Marciana. Silver Denarius (3.28 g), Augusta, ca. AD 105-112/4. Rome, under Trajan, AD 114. DIVA AVGVSTA MARCIANA, diademed and draped bust of Marciana right, hair in elaborately coifed row curls above brow and bound into tight bun high at back of head. Reverse CONSECRATIO, eagle, with wings displayed, standing left, head right. RIC 743; Woytek 719; BMC 650; RSC 4. Boldly struck and well centered with incredibly sharp detail. Delicate old cabinet toning adds to its appeal. An absolutely marvelous example of this important rarity! Easily one of the finest known. Superb Extremely Fine.
Marciana was Trajan's elder sister, and from all accounts they were very close. After her husband died in AD 78, she and her daughter, Matidia, lived with Trajan and his wife, Plotina. She never remarried and continued to live with Trajan and Plotina until she died, probably in AD 112 or 114.
Estimated Value $25,000 - 30,000.
Ex NFA VI (27-28 February 1979), 709.
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