71, Lot: 136. Estimate $150. Sold for $130. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TRAJAN. 98-117 AD. Orichalcum As (24mm, 7.84 gm). Struck 115 AD. Radiate and draped bust right / SC in laurel wreath. RIC III 647; Cohen 122. Good VF, glossy brown patina, some light roughness, reverse a little soft at edge. 

Duplicate from the Richard McAlee Collection.

This unusual issue, struck at the end of 115 AD, is typically attributed to an eastern mint, usually Antioch. Asses and semisses, both with radiate busts, were struck on orichalcum flans. Metallurgical tests have shown that the orichalcum used is indistinguishable from the orichalcum used for Roman sestertii and dupondii and quite different from the orichalcum used for some provincial issues. This fact, along with the style of the portraiture and legend, and the die axis of 6:00 versus the normal 12:00 die axis for the Antioch mint, suggests that this issue was minted at Rome and shipped to Syria. Anyone interested in this series should read the two articles by Metcalf in ANSMN 20 (1975) and 22 (1977), and Carradice and Cowell's article in NumChron (1987).