Extremely Rare TR P XVIII Issue

Triton XVII, Lot: 740. Estimate $25000. Sold for $19000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Commodus. AD 177-192. Æ Medallion (42mm, 95.47 g, 12h). Rome mint. Struck late AD 192. L AELIVS AVRELIVS COMMODVS AVG PIVS FELIX, head right, wearing lion’s skin headdress that is tied around neck / HERC ROM CONDITORI P M TR P XVIII, COS VII P P in exergue, emperor, as Hercules, advancing left, holding club and lion’s skin in left hand, guiding with his right hand a yoke of oxen. Gnecchi II, p. 54, 2, pl. 79, 7; Banti 90; Cohen 184. Good VF, green-brown patina, light smoothing. A rare and impressive piece of great historical interest.

On 10 December AD 192, Commodus entered his 18th Tribunician year. Coins carrying this tribunician date are excessively rare. Medallions bearing this date are known with this or one of five other reverse types, all of which show Commodus as Hercules. All of the medallions are very rare; Toynbee (Roman Medallions, ANSNS 5 [1986]) recorded only thirty-nine total specimens of the six types. These medallions were evidently prepared ahead of time to be given out as gifts, either on 10 December or 1 January. Commodus, however, would not live to see the new year, as he was murdered on the evening of 31 December. As Toynebee notes (p.74-5), if the latter date is favored, it is quite possible that some of the recipients of these medallions received them along with the news that Commodus had been murdered!