Rare RESTITVTORI BITHYNIAE As

385, Lot: 541. Estimate $150. Sold for $240. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Hadrian. AD 117-138. Æ As (26.5mm, 11.28 g, 12h). “Restitutor” series. Rome mint. Struck circa AD 134-138. HADRIANVS AVG COS III P P, bareheaded and draped bust right / RESTITVTOR[I BITHY]NIAE, S C in exergue, Hadrian standing left, extending hand to Bithynia to left, kneeling right, towered and holding rudder over shoulder. RIC II 949; BMCRE 1804; Cohen 1239. VF, green patina, numerous scratches, some porosity. Rare.

From the estate of Thomas Bentley Cederlind.

In this “Restitutor” series, John Melville Jones, in A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins “Province,” writes that Hadrian “is shown raising a kneeling province to its feet, the message of the coins being that by his presence he has ‘restored’ the province from the sad condition into which it had fallen.”