Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 646. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $180. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

[Roman Imperial] CLAUDIUS. 41-54 AD. Æ Sestertius (24.61 g, 6h). Rome (or Rhineland?) mint. Laureate head right; c/m; TI AV (ligate) in rectangle / Spes advancing left, holding flower and raising hem of skirt. For coin: RIC I 99; Von Kaenel Type 55; BMCRE 124; Cohen 85; for c/m: Grünwald 120; Pangerl 54. VF, orichalcum surfaces, moderate pitting. ($200)

D.W. MacDowell and A.V.M. Hubrecht discuss the countermarked bronzes from the Rhineland in "Countermarks on the Aes of Claudius from Nijmegen", Proceedings of the XIth International Numismatic Congress, vol. 2, pp. 265-7. There appear to be three distinct variations of the TI AV countermark. One appears solely on asses of Agrippa, and is probably contemporary with the reign of Tiberius. The other two are found on aes of Caligula and Claudius, and are localized in Upper Germany and the lower Rhine. MacDowell and Hubrecht conclude that the countermarks at Nijmegen were applied to lightweight products of a local mint, and indicated the coins were to be accepted at the full weight standard of the Rome mint issues struck under Tiberius (hence the countermark, TI[berius] AV[gustus]).