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CNG Feature Auction 120

Lot nuber 819

Trajan. AD 98-117. AR Denarius (19mm, 2.97 g, 6h). Restitution issue of Augustus, with Agrippa. Rome mint. Struck circa AD 107 or 112/113.


CNG Feature Auction 120
Lot: 819.
 Estimated: $ 15 000

Roman Imperial, Coin-in-Hand Video, Silver

Sold For $ 17 000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Go to Live

Trajan. AD 98-117. AR Denarius (19mm, 2.97 g, 6h). Restitution issue of Augustus, with Agrippa. Rome mint. Struck circa AD 107 or 112/113. AVGVSTVS COS XI, laureate head of Augustus right / IMP CAES • TRAIAN • AVG GER DAC • P • P • REST in field above M • AGRIPPA COS TER •, COSSVS LENTVLVS below, head of Agrippa right, wearing mural and rostral crown. RIC II 818; Woytek 849; Komnick 51.0, 1 (V1/R1); RSC 43b; BMCRE 695; BN 509-10; Leu Numismatik Auction 10, lot 2306 (same dies; hammer CHF 48,000). Lightly toned, short flan crack, a few marks on obverse, minor flan flaw on reverse. Good VF. Extremely rare. Struck with dies of artistic merit.

Although several Roman emperors re-issued types struck by their predecessors, which modern numismatists call restitution coinage, such coinage of Trajan is somewhat of an enigma. Unlike his Julio-Claudian and Flavian predecessors, whose restitution series was limited to bronze issues of specific emperors, Trajan struck only aurei and denarii. These recalled issues of certain previous emperors, including Trajan’s immediate predecessor Nerva, as well as certain Republican issues, such as an early didrachm that had been long out of circulation. In general, the striking of restitution coinage was meant to legitimize the new regime in the eyes of the populace through an expression of pietas to the “good” emperors who deserved to be remembered, as was the case of the Flavians, who included bronze coins of Galba, while omitting Caligula, Nero, Otho, and Vitellius (see BMC II, p. lxxviii). In the case of Trajan’s restitution issues, however, legitimacy appears not to be the sole reason, since he had been appointed to succeed Nerva prior to the latter’s death and was thus Nerva’s legitimate successor.

Relative to dating Trajan’s restitution coins, the traditional dating of AD 107 is based on Eckhel’s theory linking the restitution coinage with the general recoinage that Dio places after Trajan’s return from the Second Dacian War. Bernhard Woytek disagrees, and places their issue in AD 112/113, surmising that the appearance of Divus Nerva in this coinage must be contemporary to his appearance on an aureus securely dated to that period. Curtis Clay, however, pleads for the traditional dating of recoinage which, according to Dio, began circa AD 107. He states that “If the restored coinage was connected with the recoinage, and the recoinage began circa AD 107, how likely is it that Trajan would have waited until AD 112-3 to issue the restored coins resulting from that recoinage?”

Only with further study of the coinage itself might the purpose of Trajan’s restitution coinage be fully understood.

The final winners of all CNG 120 lots will be determined at the live online sale that will be held on 11-12 May 2022. CNG 120 – Session Three – Roman Republican and Imperatorial Coinage through Early Medieval and Islamic Coinage will be held Thursday morning, 12 May 2022 beginning at 9:00 AM ET.

Winning bids are subject to a 20% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 22.50% for all others.

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