Sale: CNG 67, Lot: 1417. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 September 2004.  Sold For $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TRAJAN. 98-117 AD. Æ Sestertius (27.76 gm). Struck circa 104-107 AD. Laureate bust right, wearing aegis / Trajan, veiled, plowing right with team of oxen. RIC II 568; BMCRE 829; Cohen -. VF, black-brown patina, light porosity. Very rare. ($750)

From the Tony Hardy Collection.

This interesting reverse type harkens back to the time of Augustus, and also appeared in the imperial coinage of Vespasian, as well as on many issues at the various provincial cities within the empire. The general type depicts the emperor, as priest, marking (plowing) the sulcus primigenius, or boundaries, of a new city or colony. Thus, this type appears most freqently in the provincial series, but occasionally in the imperial. Trajan was noted for establishing many new foundations, particularly colonies to settle his troops after his many campaigns. Mattingly (in BMCRE) believed this issue particularly commemorated the founding of Sarmizegethusa, the captial of the new Roman province of Dacia.