373, Lot: 348. Estimate $100. Sold for $260. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Tiberius, with Divus Augustus. AD 14-37. Æ Sestertius (34mm, 25.69 g, 1h). Rome mint. Struck AD 35-36. [OB/CIVES/SER] in three lines on shield within oak-wreath supported by two capricorns; globe below / Legend around large S • C; countermark: NCAPR within rectangular incuse. RIC I 63; for c/m: Pangerl 1a. Fine, brown surfaces with patches of green and red, some roughness and light smoothing.

From the J. Eric Engstrom Collection.

This countermark, one of the most common imperial countermarks, is likely a validating countermark used during the reign of Nero. For further discussion, see Kraay, “The Behavior of Early Imperial Countermarks” in Essays Mattingly, pp. 132ff.