Triton XV, Lot: 1527. Estimate $1000. Sold for $2750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Sestertius (30mm, 24.96 g, 12h). Rome mint. Struck AD 145-147. [ANT]ONINVS AVG PIVS TR P, laureate head right / C OS II II, Pax, draped, standing left, holding cornucopia in left hand and torch in right, setting fire to heap of arms on ground at left; PAX AVG/S C in two lines across field. RIC III –; Strack –; Banti –; BMCRE 1698 note. Good VF, green patina, some flecks of red, earthen deposits on edge. Extremely rare, perhaps the second known.

The BMCRE note indicates that an example of this extremely rare issue was in the L.A. Lawrence Collection. Unfortunately, this is impossible to verify to day, as the sestertii of Antoninus Pius were placed in unillustrated and summarily cataloged multiple lots in the Glendining sale of the Lawrence collection (17 January 1951).