436, Lot: 587. Estimate $1000. Sold for $600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Sestertius (30mm, 24.23 g, 12h). Rome mint. Struck AD 149. Laureate bust right, slight drapery / Crossed cornucopias from which a grape bunch flanked by two grain ears hang, surmounted by busts of two boys, vis-à-vis. RIC III 857; Banti 411. Good VF, attractive chestnut-brown patina, hairline flan crack. A rare and desirable type showing two doomed Antonine heirs.

From the Londinium Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group 88 (14 September 2011), lot 1339 (realized $1,500).

The infant boys shown here are thought to be T. Aelius Antoninus and T. Aurelius Antoninus, the twin sons of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina Junior born in AD 149. These were the first male offspring of the couple, offering hope for the establishment of the new dynasty, but both died in infancy. This coin design was modeled on the sestertius of the sons of Drusus and Livia Drusilla (Livilla), Tiberius and Germanicus Gemellus (cf. RIC I 42 [Tiberius]).