Dalmatian Mines Issue

425, Lot: 438. Estimate $100. Sold for $224. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous issues. temp. Hadrian–Antoninus Pius, AD 117-161. Æ Quadrans (16mm, 2.63 g, 12h). Dalmatian mines issue. Helmeted head of Mars right / METAL [DELM], cuirass. RIC II 1014 (Hadrian); Simic & Vasic 18. Near VF, dark green patina, some smoothing and porosity. Scarce.

Under Trajan and Hadrian several series of bronze quadrantes were struck in the names of the imperial mines in Noricum, Dalmatia, Pannonia and Moesia (Dardania). These operations supplied metal for the mint at Rome, and perhaps were the sites of workshops to produce coinage for local circulation or as donatives. Some scholars believe these pieces were struck at Rome itself, and served some unidentified function, much as the contemporary "nome" coinage struck at Alexandria in Egypt. Whatever the circumstances, these pieces saw limited use, and, except for one rare type struck by Marcus Aurelius, were not issued at any other period.