318, Lot: 695. Estimate $300. Sold for $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Marcus Aurelius. AD 161-180. AR Denarius (17mm, 3.74 g, 11h). Rome mint. Struck January-March AD 180. Laureate and cuirassed bust right / Fortuna seated left, holding rudder and cornucopia; wheel below chair. RIC III 409; MIR 18, 461-4/35; RSC 972. EF, toned, slightly soft strike on reverse. Very rare final issue of reign.

Szaivert (MIR) lists this as one of the two types of denarii minted in the final (39th) emission of coinage under Aurelius. The reverse type of Fortuna was struck in the hopes of Aurelius's safe return to Rome from the Rhine frontier, where he had defeated the Quadi and Marcomanni the previous Spring. Such was in vain, as the emperor succumbed to illness on March 7 in his camp at Vindobona, where he was attempting to secure a final settlement with the German tribes.