455, Lot: 295. Estimate $100. Sold for $180. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous issues. temp. Hadrian–Antoninus Pius, AD 117-161. Æ Quadrans (15.5mm, 2.71 g, 12h). Rome mint. Laureate(?) head of Jupiter right / Winged thunderbolt; S C flanking. RIC II (1st edition) 6; Cohen 13. Dark brown to black surfaces, some roughness. VF. Rare.

The series of Imperial-era anonymous quadrantes portrays eleven deities: Jupiter, Minerva, Roma, Neptune, Tiber, Mars, Venus, Apollo, Mercury, Bacchus/Liber, and Hercules, as well as the Four Seasons. They invariably depict either a portrait on the obverse and an attribute of the deity on the reverse, or otherwise an attribute on either side. These designs appear to be influenced, but not directly copied from, earlier designs of the Republican period.

Described in RIC as “Head of Jupiter, laureate, bearded, r.,” the deity on the obverse of this coin appears to be wearing a calathus (or modius), which would identify him as Serapis, the Greco-Egyptian god who was quite popular, along with his consort Isis, in Rome. If this coin does indeed depict Serapis, then the number of deities can be increased to twelve.