Three Britannia Issues of Antoninus Pius

Triton XIV, Lot: 724. Estimate $5000. Sold for $7500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Sestertius (33mm, 24.01 g, 11h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 141-143. ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P COS III, laureate head right / BRITA N NIA, S • C in exergue, Britannia seated left on heap of rocks, holding signum in right hand and cradling spear in left arm, leaning on round shield set on helmet. RIC III 742; Strack 825; Banti 44; SCBC 640 var. (without spear); BMCRE 1638; RCV (4th ed.) pl. 6, 1255 (this coin). Good VF, dark brown patina, some minor roughness, tooled. Very rare. One of the finer known specimens.

From the Collection of a Northern California Gentleman. Ex Gilbert Steinberg Collection (Numismatica Ars Classica, 16 November 1994), lot 434; Spink 71 (11 October 1989), lot 267; Sotheby’s (28 September 1973), lot 64.

One of Pius' first actions as emperor was to send Q. Lollius Urbicus, a previous governor of Germania Inferior, to Britain to quell a number of revolts. While most of the sources note the Brigantes (located in Northumbria) as the primary focus of these events, circa 143-144 AD, most of his campaigning was against the lowland tribes of Scotland, the Votadini, Selgovae, Damnonii, and Novantae. His campaigns were successfully completed by 144, after which Urbicus and the Legio II Augusta built the Antonine Wall. This issue of sestertii was struck in commemoration of these events, for which Pius was likely acclaimed imperator for the second time.