RCV Plate Coin

CNG 111, Lot: 786. Estimate $400. Sold for $500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trebonianus Gallus. AD 251-253. Æ Sestertius (29mm, 19.29 g, 12h). Rome mint, 2nd officina. 2nd emission, AD 251-252. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Libertas standing left, holding pileus and vindicta. RIC IV 114a; Banti 21; RCV 9674 (this coin illustrated). Near EF, green patina, somewhat rectangular flan.

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.”