Trajan’s Column

202, Lot: 252. Estimate $300. Sold for $525. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ As (27mm, 10.82 g, 5h). Rome mint. Struck AD 103-111(?). Laureate and draped bust right / Trajan's Column: column set on podium decorated with eagles, and surmounted by statue of Trajan standing left, holding patera and sceptre. Cf. RIC II 600 (COS VI). Near VF, dark brown and green patina, smoothed and tooled.

From the White Mountain Collection.

Trajan's Column was the crowning glory of Trajan's Forum, built with the spoils of the Dacian Wars, and the last and greatest of the Imperial Fora. Covered by a continuous frieze of the war's events, the column was capped with a gilded heroic statue of the emperor, while an inscription on the base recounted the feat of engineering in the Forum's construction. After Trajan's death, the column became the repository of his ashes.

The obverse of this coin clearly reads COS V P P, but this type is not recorded with a COS V obverse in this denomination. It is perhaps a COS VI obverse that was tooled to read COS V.