Extraordinary Poppaea Tetradrachm

Triton XXI, Lot: 14. Estimate $1500. Sold for $2750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Nero, with Poppaea. AD 54-68. BI Tetradrachm (23mm, 13.45 g, 12h). Dated RY 9 (AD 62/63). NЄPΩ KΛAY KAIC CЄB ΓЄP AYTO, laureate head of Nero right / ΠΟΠΠ[ΑΙΑ CЄB]ACTOY, draped bust of Poppaea Sabina right; before, star; across field, L ЄNA (date). Köln 155; Dattari (Savio) 194; K&G 14.73 corr. (obv. legend); RPC I 5267; Emmett 128.9 (R3); Staffieri, Alexandria In Nummis 14 (this coin). EF, toned. Exceptional and one of the finest known.

From the Giovanni Maria Staffieri Collection. Ex Empire Coins 8 (7 December 1987), lot 337.

Extremely rare issue for the first year of Poppaea being introduced on Nero’s Alexandrian coinage, with Nero still being depicted wearing a laurel wreath versus the radiate crown of later years.