Trajan’s Column

Sale: CNG 82, Lot: 1009. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 September 2009.  Sold For $1350. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ Dupondius (13.56 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 112-115. Radiate and draped bust right / Trajan's Column: column with spirals and dots set on podium decorated with eagles, surmounted by statue of Trajan standing left, holding patera and scepter. RIC II 603 corr. (bust type). Good VF, deep green-brown patina, areas of minor porosity, traces of earthen highlights. Struck on a broad flan.

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.