CNG 87, Lot: 1183. Estimate $10000. Sold for $10000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Majorian. AD 457-461. AR Half Siliqua (12mm, 0.72 g, 6h). Uncertain Northern Gaul mint. Helmeted, draped, and cuirassed bust right / (retrograde CC)R OTIV, Victory standing left, holding long cross; ; *•*. RIC X 2651 (same dies as illustrated coin); cf. C. King, “Fifth Century Silver Issues in Gaul,” SNL, Group B; RSC -. Good VF, Very rare. Excellent quality metal for issue and struck with fine-style dies.

Majorian came from an illustrious Italian family and was considered a possible successor to the throne after the death of Valentinian III in AD 455. With the deposition of Avitus in October 456, Majorian and Ricimer were the de facto rulers of the West, and Majorian was proclaimed emperor by the army on 1 April 457. Just as Avitus had not been accepted in Italy, Majorian was not accepted in Gaul, and he successfully led military campaigns in AD 458/9 to quell any threat of revolt from that quarter. He did not have such luck in Spain, however, as in AD 460/1 his two naval expeditions against Gaiseric met with disaster. In the meantime, he also had aroused the suspicions of Ricimer, and after Majorian's return to Rome on 2 August AD 461 he was seized, and beheaded five days later.

These extremely rare half siliquae of Majorian have long been the subject of scholarly speculation. Cahn (SNR 31 [1938], pp. 431-2, note 26) linked the obverse design to contemporary solidi struck at Arelate, while Kent (RIC X, pp. 187) supposed it derived from Visigothic issues of Valentinian III. While no specific mint has ever been determined, the find spots of examples of this type (two in France and one in Switzerland), suggests a mint somewhere in northern Gaul, and may be attributed to a mint under the direction of Majorian's ardent magister militum, Aegidius, who held that province on his behalf. When Ricimer deposed Majorian in AD 461, Aegidius retained control of much of this territory for the empire in the face of Ricimer's candidate, Libius Severus. This issue appears to have been ancestral for similar regional small silver coins in the names of the legitimate imperial candidates, Anthemius and Nepos (cf. RIC X 2905 and 3254; none exist for Severus), as well as similar possible Frankish types in the name of Anastasius.