Triton XIX, Lot: 539. Estimate $3000. Sold for $3000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Hadrian. AD 117-138. Æ Sestertius (33mm, 24.69 g, 7h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 120-122. IMP CAESAR TRAIANVS HADRIANVS AVG P M TR P COS III, laureate heroic bust right, slight drapery / PROVID ENTIA DEORVM, S C across field, Hadrian, togate, standing facing, head left, holding volumen in left hand, extending right hand to receive scepter from eagle on left, flying right. RIC II 589b; Strack 554ε; Banti 617; BMCRE 1204. Near EF, light olive-green patina, area of dark gray on reverse. A handsome coin.

Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 78 (26 May 2014), lot 940; Golden Horn Collection (Stack’s, 12 January 2009), lot 2294, where it realized $6,000.

This fascinating reverse type is meant to emphasize the legitimacy of Hadrian's rule: Jupiter's symbol, the eagle, bestowing on the emperor a scepter.