CNG 109, Lot: 647. Estimate $3000. Sold for $4200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Galba. AD 68-69. Æ Sestertius (35mm, 25.55 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck circa late summer AD 68. IMP • SER • SVLP • GALBA • CAES • AVG • TR • P, laureate and draped bust right / LIBERTAS PVBLICA, S C across field, Libertas standing facing, head left, holding pileus in extended right hand, cradling vindicta in left arm. RIC I 309; ACG officina E (unlisted dies); BMCRE 71; BN 147. VF, attractive river patina, minor die break on reverse, light field marks.

From the collection of a Texas Wine Doctor. Ex Triton X (9 January 2007), lot 592.

According to A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins by John Melville Jones, the vindicta which Libertas carries was “the rod with which a slave was touched during the ceremony of manumission or liberation.”