Exceptional Fine Style Aelius

Triton XXI, Lot: 101. Estimate $1500. Sold for $3500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Aelius. Caesar, AD 136-138. BI Tetradrachm (25mm, 13.51 g, 12h). Struck AD 137. Λ • AIΛIOC • KAICAP •, bare head right / ΔHM • ЄΞOV C • VΠAT • B •, Homonoia standing facing, head left, holding a phiale with her right hand over a lighted and garlanded altar to left, and cradling a cornucopia with her left arm. Köln 1271; Dattari (Savio) 2074 (this coin – obverse illustrated on pl. II and reverse illustrated on pl. XVI); K&G 34.2; RPC III 6140/49 (this coin); Emmett 1350; Staffieri, Alexandria In Nummis 163 (this coin). EF, toned. Exceptional, and fine style. Certainly one of, if not the finest known.

From the Giovanni Maria Staffieri Collection, purchased from Numismatica Aretusa SA (Lugano–Franco Chiesa), December 1986.

An interesting dating convention for the time, this series of tetradrachms was issued carrying Aelius’ titles (and subsequent dates) as tribune and consul, the latter for the second time. Other series from Alexandria generally involved the dating of the coins with respect to the emperor’s regnal year rather than the conventions employed here.