Imperial Marriage Issue

Triton XVIII, Lot: 1273. Estimate $50000. Sold for $67500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Valentinian III. AD 425-455. AV Solidus (22mm, 4.49 g, 7h). Imperial Marriage issue. Thessalonica mint. Struck Winter AD 437-438. D N PLA VALENTI NIANVS P F AVG, diademed, helmeted, draped, and cuirassed bust right / FELICITER NVBTIIS, Theodosius II standing facing, clasping together Valentinian III standing facing to left and Licinia Eudoxia standing facing to right; all three nimbate and wearing imperial regalia; COMOB. RIC X –; Depeyrot –; DOCLR –; Biaggi –; Tkalec (29 February 2000), lot 452 = Triton V, 2227 = Triton VII, lot 1061 (same dies); Tkalec (19 February 2001), lot 432 (same dies); NGSA VIII, lot 204 = NGSA II, lot 151 (same dies); Gemini I, lot 485 = NAC 34, lot 114 (same dies); Triton VI, 1160 (same dies); cf. CNG 96, lot 926 (for obv.; same die). EF. Extremely rare, one of approximately six known, all from same die pair.

Six specimens of this type are known, including the current example, all from the same pair of dies:

1) Glenn Woods Collection (Triton VII, 13 January 2004), lot 2227 = Triton V (15 January 2002), lot 2227 = Tkalec (29 February 2000), lot 452.

2) Tkalec (19 February 2001), lot 432.

3) J.J. Grano Collection (NGSA VIII, 24 November 2014), lot 204 = NGSA II (18 November 2002), lot 151.

4) Gemini I (11 January 2005), lot 485 = NAC 34 (24 November 2006), lot 114.

5) Triton VI (14 January 2003), lot 1160.

6) The present coin.

Following Galla Placidia's falling out with the emperor Honorius, her young son, Valentinian (the future Valentinian III), accompanied Galla and his sister, Justa Grata Honoria, into exile at the court of Theodosius II at Constantinople. When the usurper Johannes seized power in the western empire following the death of Honorius, Theodosius had Valentinian prepared to be Honorius' legitimate imperial successor. In AD 424, Valentinian was appointed Caesar and betrothed to Licinia Eudoxia, the daughter of Theodosius II. In AD 425, he was proclaimed Augustus at Rome. Twelve years later, in AD 437, he returned to Constantinople for his marriage. The wedding, on 29 October of that year, was a great state occasion. Flavius Merobaudes, the 5th century AD poet and rhetorician, and the official poet laureate of Valentinian III and Aëtius, described that a series of mosaics, now lost, depicted the occasion and the sequence of events that had led up to it.

On their journey back to Rome, the newly-married imperial couple spent the winter of AD 437/8 in Thessalonica, during which time this extremely rare issue of solidi was struck.