Sale: CNG 60, Lot: 1678. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 May 2002.  Sold For $240. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TRAJAN. 98-117 AD. Æ Quadrans (2.78 gm). Dardania mines. Laureate head right / DARD-ANICI, Ceres(?) standing left, holding grain ears and gathering up drapery. RIC II 704 (same obverse die); Cohen 139. Fine/Near Fine, green patina. Rare. ($300)

Under Trajan and Hadrian several series of bronze quadrantes were struck in the name of the imperial mines in Noricum, Dalmatia, Pannonia and Moesia (Dardania). These operations supplied metal for the mint at Rome, and perhaps were the sites of workshops to produce coinage for local circulation or as donatives. Others theorize that these pieces were struck at Rome itself, and served some unidentified function, much as the contemporary 'nome' coinage struck at Alexandria in Egypt. Whatever the circumstances, these pieces saw limited use, and except for one rare type struck by Marcus Aurelius, were not issued during any other period.