The Aqua Traiani

298, Lot: 150. Estimate $200. Sold for $320. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ Dupondius (27mm, 12.18 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck AD 111. Radiate bust right, slight drapery / AQVA/ TRAIANA in two lines in exergue, Genius of the Aqua Traiana reclining left under arched and ornamented grotto supported by two columns, holding reed and leaning on urn from which water flows. RIC II 464; Woytek 360b-2. VF, brown and green patina with some spots of red, smoothing and cleaning scratches.

Ex Robert O. Ebert Collection.

The Aqua Traiana was dedicated in AD 109 and supplied water to the expanding trans-Tiber (west bank) suburbs of Rome. The coin depicts the castellum, or waterworks, associated with the terminal of the aqueduct, and its statue of the river Tiber.