Triton XIV, Lot: 658. Estimate $5000. Sold for $35000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Nero. AD 54-68. Æ Sestertius (32mm, 26.73 g, 7h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 64. NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM P M TR P IMP P P, laureate head left / CONG II DAT POP, S C in exergue, Nero seated left in curule chair on raised daïs, extending hand; praefectus annonae standing right, behind; individual standing left, extending hands to receive tessera from figure holding abacus before; statue of Minerva standing left on pedestal, holding owl and scepter; tetrastyle building behind. RIC I 162; WCN 93; BMCRE 141; BN 282 var. (laureate head right, wearing aegis). Good VF, attractive Tiber patina, areas of minor porosity, light scratch on reverse.

Ex Triton VII (13 January 2004), lot 874.

Scenes in which the emperor makes public distributions to citizens, a ceremony known as a congiarium, first appear on coinage at this time. Since the donativum, in which gifts were made to the army, become popular later, in the mid-2nd century the donation scenes are usually identified as Liberalitas types rather than congiarium types.