Trajan’s Column

336, Lot: 268. Estimate $750. Sold for $2525. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ Dupondius (28mm, 11.23 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck AD 114-116. Radiate and draped bust right / Trajan’s Column: column with spirals and dots set on podium decorated with eagles, surmounted by statue of Trajan standing left, holding patera and scepter. RIC II 679; Woytek 538v. VF, dark green patina, light smoothing, scratch on obverse.

Trajan's Column was the crowning glory of the Forum Traiani, built with the spoils of the Dacian Wars. Covered by a continuous frieze of the war's events, the column was capped with a gilded heroic statue of the emperor, while an inscription on the base recounted the feat of engineering in the forum's construction. After Trajan's death, the column became the repository of his ashes.