Aelius & Aurelius Antoninus

Sale: CNG 81, Lot: 1034. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009.  Sold For $1100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Sestertius (28.38 g, 12h). Rome mint. Struck AD 149. Laureate head right / Crossed cornucopiae from which a grape bunch flanked by two grain ears hang, surmounted by busts of two boys, vis-à-vis. RIC III 857; Banti 410. VF, black patina, minor roughness, slight obverse die shift, light scratches in field on reverse.

Ex John F. Sullivan Collection (Classical Numismatic Group 70, 21 September 2005), lot 777.

The infants are thought to represent T. Aelius Antoninus and T. Aurelius Antoninus, the twin sons of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina Junior born in 149 AD. These were the first male offspring of the couple, offering hope for the establishment of the new dynasty, but both died in infancy. This coin design was modelled on the sestertius of the sons of Drusus and Livia Drusilla (Livilla), Tiberius and Germanicus Gemellus (cf. RIC I 42 (Tiberius).