British Victory

383, Lot: 528. Estimate $150. Sold for $900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ As (28mm, 9.61 g, 6h). British Victory commemorative. Rome mint. Struck AD 143-144. Laureate head right / Victory advancing left, holding a round shield inscribed BRI/TAN in two lines. RIC III 732; SCBC 644. Good Fine, brown and green patina, a few marks, roughness on obverse. Rare and historical.

From the estate of Thomas Bentley Cederlind. Ex Cederlind BBS 158 (28 March 2011), lot 376; Cederlind BBS 151 (18 June 2009), lot 270; Cederlind BBS 147 (17 June 2008), lot 247; Spink 8006 (26 March 2008), lot 1124.

Antoninus Pius received his second imperial acclamation, as recorded in this coin’s reverse legend, for the victory by his governor in Britannia, Q. Lollius Urbicus, over the Brigantes. It was Urbicus who also constructed the Antonine Wall in Scotland between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. It represented the northernmost frontier barrier of the Roman Empire.