Triton XXI, Lot: 189. Estimate $500. Sold for $375. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Commodus. AD 177-192. Æ Diobol (25mm, 9.01 g, 12h). Dated RY 27 of Marcus Aurelius (AD 186/187). M A KO [ANT]ω CЄB ЄVCЄBHC, laureate head right / Sarapis standing facing, head left, right hand raised in salute, holding scepter with his left; K/L Z (date) across field. Köln –; Dattari (Savio) 9652 (this coin); K&G 41.90; Emmett 2617.27 (R5); Staffieri, Alexandria In Nummis 191 (this coin). Good VF, dark brown surfaces with touches of green, a bit of roughness. As per our note for the Commodus Caesar diobol, all bronze coinage for him is extremely rare.

From the Giovanni Maria Staffieri Collection. Ex Numismatik Lanz 92 (4 June 1999), lot 726; Carlo Fontana Collection (Finarte Casa D’Aste Auction 995, 26 November 1996), lot 987; Ars et Nummus (Giuseppe Nascia – Milano) FPL 1978; Giovanni Dattari Collection, no. 9652.

Only two examples are known for this type: one in the British Museum Collection, no. 1444, and this coin, the finer of the two, and the only specimen in private hands.