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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 
194, Lot: 240. Estimate $100.
Sold for $392. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ As (23mm, 9.21 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck AD 115-116. Radiate and draped bust right / Large S C surrounded by oak wreath. RIC II 647; BMCRE 1093; McAlee 509. Good VF, green patina with some earthen deposits.


This unusual issue is typically attributed to an eastern mint, normally Antioch. The issue consisted of the as and semis, both with radiate busts, and both struck on orichalcum flans. Metallurgical tests have shown that the orichalcum used is indistinguishable from the orichalcum used for Roman sestertii and dupondii and quite different from the orichalcum used for some provincial issues. This, along with the style of the portraiture and legend and the die axis of 6:00 versus the normal 12:00 die axis for the Antioch mint, suggests that this issue was minted at Rome and shipped to Syria. See articles by Metcalf in ANSMN 20 (1975) and 22 (1977), and Carradice and Cowell's article in NC (1987).