Triton XX, Lot: 928. Estimate $20000. Sold for $32500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Aelia Verina. Augusta, AD 457-484. AV Solidus (20mm, 4.47 g, 6h). Constantinople mint. Struck AD 471 or 473. AEL VERI NA AVC, pearl-diademed and draped bust right; manus Dei holding nimbus above / VICTORI A AVGGG, Victory standing left, holding long jeweled cross with right hand; star in right field; CONOB. RIC X 632 (same obv. die as illustration on pl. 24); MIBR 4a; Depeyrot 93/2; DOCLR 593 var. (obv. legend); NAC 56 (2010), lot 509 (same dies). EF, lustrous, a point of striking flatness. Very rare.

Verina had an extraordinary personal history, plotting from time to time for and against her various relatives in numerous intrigues to control the succession or seize the throne. The very rare gold coinage in her name is attributed to two separate periods, an earlier issue struck in 462 or 466 and a later issue in 471 or 473. The present coin, from the later issue, comes in the final years of Leo I’s reign, when Verina was instrumental in arranging the elevation of the couple’s young grandson Leo II. Commenting on this issue, Kent notes that “in contrast to her earlier coinage, she is shown with hunched and forbidding features”. Perhaps the stress of palace intrigue was already taking its toll on the empress.