Sale: Nomos 3 & 4, Lot: 216. Estimate CHF2250.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 May 2011.  Sold For CHF2000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Maximianus. First reign, AD 286-305. Argenteus (Silver, 5.32 g 6), Siscia, c. 300. MAXIMIANVS AVG Laureate head of Maximianus to right. Rev. VICTORIA AVGG / *SIS Camp gate with with open door and three turrets. Cf. RIC 63b but of unusually heavy weight. Extremely rare. With a few minor deposits, otherwise very sharp, attractive and, good extremely fine.

From the Tetrarchy Collection, New York.

Unusually heavy argentei are known, but they are very rare and a number of explanations have been proposed for them. They could be special presentation issues, made for discrete payments, but since you could only tell them apart from the normal issues by weighing them they would not be very convenient. In some ways it would seem more likely that they were just errors that escaped into circulation; but very impressive they are just the same.