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Research Coins: Feature Auction

 
Sale: CNG 67, Lot: 1435. Estimate $5000. 
Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 September 2004. 
Sold For $4000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TRAJAN. 98-117 AD. Æ Sestertius (29.11 gm). Struck circa 112-115 AD. Laureate and draped bust right / PORTVM • TRAIANI, three ships within hexagonal harbor framed by two-story arcades; temples surmounted by statues on either side below. RIC II 631 var. (laureate head right); BMCRE pg. 205, *; Cohen 306. Good Fine, black patina, smoothed. Very rare. ($5000)

From the Tony Hardy Collection.

Documentation in ancient sources is plentiful concerning the Port of Trajan (cf. Pliny, Ep. 6.31, letter to Cornelianus); however, the exact location of the port is uncertain. Strack claims that it is the harbour of Trajan at Ostia as opposed to that at Centumcellae, a conclusion which Mattingly (BMCRE, vol. II, pg. civ) questioned. Perhaps future archaeological fieldwork will determine the precise location of the port depicted on this rare issue.