237, Lot: 492. Estimate $100. Sold for $165. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan Decius. AD 249-251. Æ Sestertius or As (26mm, 10.03 g, 12h). Rome mint. 6th-7th emission, AD 250-251. Laureate and cuirassed bust right / Dacia standing left, holding signa. RIC IV 113a or 113c. VF, dark brown patina, edge splits.

A die match to either a sestertius or an as would prove the denomination of this enigmatic coin. It is extremely light for a sestertius, even for this late period of the denomination’s existence, yet it seems that both the obverse and reverse designs are too large for it to be an as. Regrettably, its small size is of no help in solving the riddle: it is small because the conditions under which the flan was manufactured were unsettled, with inflation rampant and bullion scarce, and of all places the mint felt the effects.

It is in examining these sorts of questions that truly brings life to ancient coins. In this case one may wonder if the mint workers were scrounging the last dregs of liquid metal from the pot to make the flan for a sestertius and just did not have quite enough, or if they used dies for a sestertius to strike an as. Or perhaps there is even some other explanation. For now, however, the answer eludes us.