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Dardanian Mines Issue

402687. Sold For $575

Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ Semis (18mm, 3.16 g, 6h). Dardanian mines issue. Rome mint. Struck circa AD 98-102. IMP CAES NERVA TRA IAN AVG GERM, laureate bust right, aegis at point of bust / DARDANICI, Pax standing facing, head left, holding olive branch in right hand and gathering drapery with left. RIC II 703 corr. (listed as quadrans); Woytek 608c = GoMo 115, lot 1858; (same obv. die); Strack 498 (bust type not listed); BMCRE –; BN –; Zmajić –. Good VF, black-green patina. Very rare with aegis at point of bust.


Under Trajan and Hadrian several series of bronze quadrantes were struck in the names of the imperial mines in Noricum, Dalmatia, Pannonia, and Moesia (Dardania). These operations supplied metal for the mint at Rome, and perhaps were the sites of workshops to produce coinage for local circulation or as donatives. It has been suggested that these mines issues were struck at Rome itself, and served some unidentified function, much as the contemporary 'nome' coinage struck at Alexandria in Egypt. Whatever the circumstances, these pieces saw limited use, and except for one rare type struck by Marcus Aurelius, were not issued during any other period.