“The Best”
Trajan’s New Honorific

Triton XXI, Lot: 55. Estimate $3000. Sold for $2250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ Drachm (33mm, 21.28 g, 12h). Dated RY 18 (AD 114/115). [AVT TPAI]AN API CЄ B ΓЄPM ∆AKIK, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Nilus, holding reed and cornucopia, standing facing, head left, being crowned by Euthenia, standing facing, head left, and holding grain ears; [L I] H (date) across field. Köln –; Dattari (Savio) 1012 (this coin); K&G 27.606; RPC III 4872.1/8 (this coin); Emmett 561.18; Staffieri, Alexandria In Nummis 46 (this coin). Choice EF, brown patina with green highlights.

From the Giovanni Maria Staffieri Collection, purchased from Renzo Canavesi, Sagno, 1996. Ex Renzo Canavesi Collection (Sagno); Dr. Piero Beretta Collection (Milan); Giovanni Dattari Collection, no. 1012.

This coin is one of the first Alexandrian coins to incorporate a new title for Trajan: ΑΡΙ(ΣΤΟΣ), which is Optimus in Latin (or the ‘Best’ in English).