Sale: CNG 63, Lot: 1377. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 May 2003.  Sold For $240. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANONYMOUS. Time of Marcus Aurelius. Circa 161-180 AD. Æ Semis (2.85 gm). Pannonian(?) mines issue. Laureate and draped female bust right / METAL / AURELIA/NIS in three lines. RIC II 1255 var. (wreath); Simic and Vasic, RN 1977, 24 var. (wreath); Cohen -. VF, green and red-brown patina, small edge flaw. Very rare. ($200)

This was the only mine issue not struck under Trajan or 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. Others theorize that these pieces were struck at Rome, and served some unidentified function, like the contemporary "nome" coinage struck at Alexandria in Egypt. Whatever the circumstances, these pieces saw limited use.