60, Lot: 115. Estimate $200. Sold for $182. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

HADRIAN. 117-138 AD. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.48 gm). Struck 134-138 AD. Head right / Nilus reclining right, holding reed and cornucopiae; hippopotamus before and crocodile below. RIC II 310; RSC 989. Toned, good VF.

This coin commemorates Hadrian's visit to Egypt in 130-131 AD. It was while Hadrian was on tour in Egypt that his favorite, Antinoüs, "mysteriously" drowned in the Nile. So great was the emperor's grief that he commanded a series of religious rituals to be performed in the young man's honor, and, on the site where the body was recovered, Hadrian ordered the construction of a city called Antinöopolis in honor of the young man.