T. Aelius Antoninus and T. Aurelius Antoninus

Sale: CNG 82, Lot: 1015. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 September 2009.  Sold For $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Sestertius (26.79 g, 12h). Rome mint. Struck AD 149. Laureate bust right, slight drapery / Crossed cornucopiae from which a grape bunch flanked by two grain ears hang, surmounted by busts of two boys, vis-à-vis. RIC III 857; Banti 411. Good VF, dark green patina, some spots of red. Banti records only four examples with slight drapery. Rare.

The infants are thought to be T. Aelius Antoninus and T. Aurelius Antoninus, the twin sons of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina Junior born in AD 149. These were the first male offspring of the couple, offering hope for the establishment of the new dynasty, but both died in infancy. This coin design was modeled on the sestertius of the sons of Drusus and Livia Drusilla (Livilla), Tiberius and Germanicus Gemellus (cf. RIC I 42 (Tiberius).