389, Lot: 658. Estimate $200. Sold for $220. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Hadrian. AD 117-138. Æ Sestertius (32mm, 29.16 g, 12h). “Restitutor” series. Rome mint. Struck circa AD 134-138. Laureate and draped bust right / RESTITVTORI BITHYNIAE, S C in exergue, Hadrian, togate, standing right, holding volumen and extending hand to raise up kneeling Bithynia, who holds acrostolium and rests foot on prow. RIC II 947; Banti 652. Fine, light golden brown patina. Rare.

From the David Wray Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group 50 (23 June 1999), lot 176.

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.”