Affordable Circus Maximus Sestertius

338, Lot: 237. Estimate $200. Sold for $320. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ Sestertius (33mm, 19.57 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 103-104. Laureate bust right, slight drapery / The Circus Maximus, showing outer colonnade and partial view of interior. RIC II 571 var. (bust type); Woytek 175b; Banti 273. Fair, brown patina, two long scratches across obverse. Rare.

The Circus Maximus, perhaps the second greatest monument built for the benefit of Rome's citizens after the famed Flavian Amphitheatre (Colosseum), was restored by Trajan in AD 103. It is portrayed on this coin as seen from the Forum Boarium.