Sale: Triton V, Lot: 2053. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 January 2002.  Sold For $2500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GORDIAN I. 238 AD. Æ Sestertius (17.80 gm). IMP CAES M ANT GORDIANVS AFR AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind; counterstamp: crowned C / VICTORIA AVGG, S C across field, Victory advancing left, holding wreath and palm. RIC IV 12; BMCRE 14; S. Havercamp, Numophylacium Reginae Christinae (1742), pg. 235, III, pl. XXXIII (this coin); Cohen 14. VF, brown patina. ($1000)

From the Robert Schonwalter Collection. Ex Monnaies et Médailles Vente Publique 61 (7-8 October 1982), lot 466; Hess-Leu Auktion 41 (24-25 April 1969), lot 419; Queen Christina of Sweden Collection (reigned 1632-1654).

In 1654, Queen Christina abdicated and moved to Rome, taking with her an immense coin collection of more than 15,000 coins, some of which she had inherited. She patronized a group of prominent numismatists of the time, and when she died, she bequethed more than 6000 coins to the Odescalchi family, and these coins were later sold to Pope Pius VI for the Vatican's coin cabinet. Her coins are easily identifiable by the crowned C stamped on them, and are some of the oldest and most prestigiously pedigreed coins.