80, Lot: 151. Estimate $100. Sold for $415. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TRAJAN. 98-117 AD. Æ Quadrans (2.71 gm). Dalmatia mines. IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC [P M TR P COS VI P P], laureate bust right, slight drapery / METALLI VLPIANI PAN, Aequitas standing left, holding scales and cornucopiae. RIC II 705 var (DELM instead of PAN); BMCRE pg. 234 † var. (same); Simic and Vasic, "La Monnaie des Mines Romaines de L'Illyrie," in RN 1977 -. VF, dark brown patina. Very rare. Apparently unlisted.Under Trajan and Hadrian several series of bronze quadrantes were struck in the name of the imperial mines in Noricum, Dalmatia, Pannonia and Moesia (Dardania). These operations supplied metal for the mint at Rome, and perhaps were the sites of workshops to produce coinage for local circulation or as donatives. Or perhaps these pieces were struck at Rome itself, and served some unidentified function, much as the contemporary "nome" coinage struck at Alexandria in Egypt. Whatever the circumstances, these pieces saw limited use, and, except for one rare type struck by Marcus Aurelius, were not issued at any other period.