Wonderful Century-Old Pedigree
Ex J. P. Morgan and Marquis Carlo Strozzi Collections

Triton XX, Lot: 720. Estimate $10000. Sold for $27500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan. AD 98-117. AV Aureus (19mm, 7.39 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 107. IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS V P P, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / SPQR/OPTIMO/PRINCIPI in three lines within oak wreath. RIC II 150; Woytek 224f; Calicó 1088 var. (shorter rev. legend); BMCRE 253-6; Morgan 112 (this coin); Biaggi 545. EF, toned, underlying luster. Rare.

From the Continental Collection. Ex Myron Stepath Collection (Classical Numismatic Group 40, 4 December 1996), lot 1470; John Pierpont Morgan Collection (Stack’s, 14 September 1983), lot 71; Marquis Carlo Strozzi Collection (Sambon/Sangiorgi, 15 April 1907), lot 1885.

In AD 103 or 104, the Roman Senate declared Trajan “Optimus Princeps”– the best emperor – linking the beloved temporal ruler with the principal deity and protector of the Roman state, Jupiter Optimus Maximus (“the Best and Greatest”). 

J.P. Morgan purchased many of the finest coins offered in the important Strozzi sale. The wealthy Florentine Strozzi inherited a portion of his collection and, as Commissioner of Antiquities for Tuscany, had ample opportunities to add to it, carefully selecting specimens from many of the most important Italian hoards of the time.