To the Protector of the Father of the Nation

Sale: CNG 75, Lot: 1042. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2007.  Sold For $825. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ Sestertius (24.90 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 114-115. Laureate and draped bust right / Jupiter standing left, holding thunderbolt and scepter, protecting Trajan standing left, holding laurel-branch and scepter. RIC II 643 var. (obv. legend); Banti 39. Near VF, dark green patina, lightly smoothed, a small area of glossy red on and near edge. Extremely rare. Only one example cited in Banti.

According to Mattingly, BMCRE, p. lxxxii, this reverse type may celebrate Trajan’s escape from an earthquake in Antioch in AD 115. With the reverse legend Trajan credits Jupiter as “the preserver of the Father of his Country.” An example with the same obverse and reverse legends but bust also cuirassed appeared in Gemini II (10 January 2006), lot 347, realizing $9000.